When people begin to interact with Isis products on social media by retweeting, following and liking, Isis then “swarms in and makes contact.”
Dr Anne Speckhard of the United States, who has interviewed close to 500 Isis defectors, made this observation. She said there needed to be engagement on the digital battlefield where Isis was currently winning.
Speckhard serves as an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Georgetown University and is the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism.
She was responding to the question of how people are targeted and become radicalised.
Speckhard said Isis was good at distribution of thousands of social media posts, videos and posters that grab the attention of vulnerable people all over the globe who were attracted out of curiosity, desire to belong, desire for adventure, purpose, significance, dignity, excitement, anger over social injustices at home, depression, trauma, mental illness and a plethora of other individual vulnerabilities.
She said such people would then be targets by Isis recruiters.
“Then like any other cult, they find what may motivate the individual to join and begin to meet those needs grooming them with attention, reinforcement, and seduction further into the group to finally overtake them leading to their own destruction and the destruction of others,” she added.
Speckhard added that the easiest target were youth because they don’t have the perspective, experience and judgement to know that utopias never pan out.
She said Isis targeted everyone and did not mind who responded.
“They can and will use anyone who is responsive to their calls. Women are invited to come and be wives, men to be fighters and both to mount homegrown attacks.”
Isis fighters can be reintegrated into society
The author of seven books, which include Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers and “Martyrs”; Fetal Abduction: The True Story of Multiple Personalities and Murder; and Bride of ISIS: One Young Woman’s Path into Homegrown Terrorism, Speckhard said it was possible for Isis fighters to be reintegrated into society after being in war-torn Syria.
However, she said the important thing was to uncover what first made them vulnerable to believing Isis’ lies.
“What were their needs, vulnerabilities and motivations for joining and to find how these can be redirected into nonviolent actions.
“If an individual was passionate about world injustices and concerned about the plight of Muslims worldwide, can they turn that passion away from Isis to less violent ways to address injustices?” she said.
Speckhard said if their needs, motivations and vulnerabilities were not addressed, these continued to exist upon their return. It was important to note too that Isis fighters have taken on a lot of trauma on the battlefield and were even more vulnerable.
“Thus, they can easily flip back into Isis even after publicly renouncing the group. Likewise, lonely individuals remain vulnerable to Isis members recontacting them and activating intimate bonds that may be idealised again after their return. So there are many deep concerns to address to safeguard society from these returnees.”
From some of her interviews she found Isis defectors said they liked many aspects of Isis, especially Shariah training in which they were taught an ideal version of Islam which included an idealised Caliphate by a very charismatic and loving teacher—although he also taught them that all others are enemies of that dream and could be killed.
She said at the end of Shariah training some were asked to demonstrate their commitment by beheading a prisoner.
“All of them believed for a time in the dream of a utopian Islamic Caliphate and understood that it was going to be achieved via violence, but overtime the extreme brutality and corruption were turn-offs and they ultimately got disgusted and decided it was not Islamic and also fearful for their own lives.”
Speckhard said for countries in the region who are eyeing Isis it was important to look at the motivations and vulnerabilities of potential recruits and find genuine solutions.
She said, “In my view, it’s not just the military battlefield where we need to fight Isis. We also need to engage on the digital battlefield where Isis is currently winning. We need to break the Isis brand and one viable way of doing that is raising the voices of Isis insiders—defectors who are willing to denounce the group.”