Orla Lynch

British Muslim youth: radicalisation, terrorism and the construction of the “other”

Academic interest in Muslim youth, Islam, radicalisation and Islamic-inspired terrorism exploded in the aftermath of 9/11, aimed at discovering the connection between Islam and terrorism, radicalisation and terrorism and how to detect and understand those who might become involved in them. Radicalisation as a process has increasingly become associated with Muslim youth, particularly male Muslim youth, as the precursor to Islamic-inspired violence against Western states. In an effort to understand these youths, the radicalisation of, or potential radicalisation of, Muslim youth is linked in the literature to alienation due to living in separate or parallel communities, identity crisis and intergenerational conflict. Because of this, terrorism, radicalism and extremism have become entangled with notions of identity, integration, segregation and multiculturalism, and this entanglement has made being a “Muslim youth” a precarious designation in the United Kingdom. This article examines some of the concepts that are central to the process of radicalisation as it is described in the literature. Using empirical data from a study with Muslim youth, the article examines the realities of the emergence of new transcultural identities and generational change amongst Muslim youth in the United Kingdom as a feature of their lived experience, rather than as evidence of a process of radicalisation.

Deadliness, organisational change and suicide attacks: understanding the assumptions inherent in the use of the term ‘new terrorism’

This study examines the use of the term ‘new terrorism’ in a sample of the literature on terrorism, to identify whether the term represents a stable concept within the field, is of analytic value to terrorism research or is a phrase that merely identifies an unquantified concept. A content analysis of articles published in the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism from 1992 to 2011 was used as a literature sample to identify the most frequently cited features of new terrorism. The results of the analysis demonstrate that there was little consistent use of the phrase ‘new terrorism’ and the most common feature linked to it was only present in 25% of the articles. Three of the prominent features discovered in the content analysis are examined in greater detail: increased deadliness, new organisational structures (in particular, the leaderless phenomenon) and suicide terrorism. A common claim in the literature – of a decrease in the frequency of the attacks but an increase in the lethality per attack – seems to have been a short-term trend between 1992 and 2005. Since this time, the trend has reversed. Historical analysis was used to assess the notion of change in the organisational structure. This analysis allowed the authors to identify precursors of the ‘new’ organisational structures. Early groups such as the Anarchists were found to use a similar concept of decentralised command with varying degrees of success. Similarly, historical precursors of suicide terrorism were found, even though the recent exponential growth in the use of suicide terrorism by modern terrorist organisations could be considered as quantitatively ‘new’. This study concludes that the new terrorism represents a loose association of tactics, provides limited value to terrorist research, and represents not a category identifiable by novel features, but rather a loose referral to the perceived importance and threat of terrorism.

Introduction to the Special Issue: The Complexity of Terrorism—Victims, Perpetrators and Radicalization

ABSTRACT This special issue examines the complex relationship between radicalization, victimhood. and political violence. The interrelatedness of victims and perpetrators has been long recognized in the fields of criminology and victimology but it is has been often ignored in the case of terrorism and political violence. The key aim of this issue therefore is to assist in enhancing our understanding of this interrelatedness with a particular focus on the relevance of narratives, roles, and identities of victimhood for both the victims and perpetrators. A second, more policy-relevant dimension is to examine the role of victims and perpetrators in the prevention of terrorism and political violence.

“Doing Peace”: The Role of Ex-Political Prisoners in Violence Prevention Initiatives in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT While a considerable amount of research has been conducted on community-based initiatives aimed at preventing violence, including the role of the ex-political prisoner community in preventative and counterterrorism work, little is known about how the ex-prisoners themselves manage their identity transition between the role they occupied during the conflict and their current role in violence prevention. We argue that it is important to consider the perspective of ex-prisoners who are both architects of their own process of desistance from political violence, as well active leaders of bespoke desistance programs. While many researchers have recognized the utility of the role of ex-prisoners in violence prevention work, theoretically, the way in which ex-prisoners do violence prevention through their use of language and intergroup contact and other resources, is poorly understood. Ultimately, the aim of the article is twofold: to understand the resources (discursive or otherwise) that the community of ex-political prisoners use in their preventative work and (2) to understand how this community understand their role in desistance programs in the context of their personal involvement in violent conflict, including the ways in which participants manage their identity transition.

The Construction and Mobilization of Collective Victimhood by Political Ex-Prisoners in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT This article attempts to challenge binary notions of “victim” and “perpetrator” categories by taking into account the complex interaction of actors who both participate in, and are impacted by, terrorist violence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-identified Republican (n = 25) and Loyalist (n = 27) ex-prisoners in Northern Ireland who are currently involved in self-described peace initiatives. Results suggest that political ex-prisoners evoke notions of collective victimization as a vehicle to bridge their transition from “paramilitary” to “peace maker” in this context. The implications are discussed in terms of understanding the functionality of collective victimhood for those who controversially adopt the label.

Counterterrorism, Community Policing and the Flags Protests: An Examination of Police Perceptions of Northern Ireland's Operation Dulcet

In 2013 Northern Ireland (NI) witnessed the most protracted period of public-disorder ever seen in the United Kingdom. After Belfast City Council voted to fly the Union flag in-line with the manner adopted in the rest of the United Kingdom, loyalist protestors blocked roads, attacked offices, and held marches through Belfast city center. During what became known as Operation Dulcet, police had to respond to the protests and violence, mindful of existing tensions in NI. This article reports on data collected from interviews conducted with officers involved in the policing of these events. The findings demonstrate that the police response was understood using narratives concerning the primacy of human rights, a focus on perceived proportionality, and ultimately, related to the potential violence linked to historic conceptions of community divisions in NI.

Being Muslim and being Irish after 9/11: self-conceptions of place in Irish society

There has been a significant, well-established if somewhat invisible Muslim population in Ireland since the 1950s. An increase in immigration during the Celtic tiger years along with the hysteria of 9/11 caused a rapid visibilization of this population. Muslims became synonymous with extremism and terrorism, but also fell victim to racist constructions emerging from the economic decline. The experience of Muslim youth since 9/11 has been well researched in the UK and Europe, however there has been little empirical work conducted with Ireland’s Muslim communities. In the literature, it is assumed that the British experience is replicated for Muslim youth in Ireland – this is not the case. This paper examines the lived experience of Irish Muslim youth given the visibilization of Islam after 9/11 and their ensuing experiences of Irishness. An analysis of ethnographic data reveals the idiosyncratic experiences of these youth growing up in the shadow of a discriminatory and Islamophobic narrative on extremism and terrorism and an evolving immigrant landscape.

Functions of collective victimhood: Political violence and the case of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

The conflict that played out in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1998 is commonly referred to as the Troubles. Over the course of almost 30 years just under 3,700 people were killed and an estimated 40,000–80,000 injured; it is thought that 80% of the population of Northern Ireland knew someone who had been killed or injured in the violence. The protracted conflict that played out between local communities, the state and paramilitary organisations left a legacy of community division in the region; competing narratives of victimhood emerged and they served to inform intergroup relations. This article will provide a brief overview of the functions of collective victimhood as manifested in the social psychological literature, drawing on the example of the Troubles in Northern Ireland as a case study. In doing so, we will focus particularly on the mobilisation of collective victimhood as both a precursor for involvement in conflict but also as a justification after the event. Additionally, we are interested in the superordinate (broad societal level) re-categorisations of subgroups based on collective identities, including victimhood, and how they can be used as a conflict transformation resource. Ultimately, we will argue that research has tended to overlook how those involved in (as well as those impacted by) the Troubles construct and mobilise victimhood identities, for what purpose and to what end. We argue that in order to understand how collective victimhood is used and to understand the function it serves, both as a precursor for involvement in conflict and as a conflict transformation resource, we need to understand how parties to the conflict, both victims and perpetrators, construct the boundaries of these identity categories, as well as their rhetorical counterpart perpetrators of political violence.

Victims of terrorism and political violence : identity, needs, and service delivery in Northern Ireland and Great Britain

Terrorism and political violence exist fundamentally as communicative acts; inherently the acts themselves serve to inspire anxiety and fear. As the recipients of such a communicative act, victims of terrorism and political violence serve as the vehicle for the dissemination of these communications to both the intended and broader audiences. Their victimising experience is thus a complex interplay between a profound personal trauma and the political/communicative dimension of the attack. Given this complexity, this article addresses how victims’ needs are understood by victims of terrorism and political violence in both Northern Ireland (NI) and Great Britain (GB). Through engagement with practitioners, victims, survivors, and community activists, this article conceptualises the existing perceptions amongst these different groups regarding needs, the delivery of services to victims in NI and GB, and examines the origins of the different approaches. Results demonstrate that victims’ needs are highly context-dependent at a public level, but relate heavily to the experiences of other victims of terrorism and political violence at a private level.

Victims and Perpetrators: A Clinician’s Account of Ex-child Soldiers and the Child Development Process in Sri Lanka

Given the pervasiveness of political violence and terrorism in certain geographic regions, it is reasonable to consider the impact of the violence as all-encompassing and therefore as a feature of child development in those communities. Growing up in an environment of perceived and actual violence is an unfortunate element of child development for large segments of the population existing in conflict zones. Apart from the children who witness, directly experience or silently incorporate the direct or intergenerational transmission of political violence, the complex experiences of another subgroup of children also need to be understood — child soldiers. As both victims and controversially termed ‘perpetrators’ of political violence, these children navigate the treacherous moral highway between child and adult notions of innocence, abduction, agency and culpability.