Radicalization is “the psychological process of adopting extremist positions (White).” It’s broken down into six-steps: “alienation, one alienated person meets another, group gravitates toward religion, interpret the religion in militant terms, militant group meets a terrorist contract, and they join forces (White).” According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Counterterrorism Division it is a smooth process where not all individuals become radicalized extremists. The average person seeking to pursue the Islamic faith is not converted simply by pure interest (Counterterrorism Division ). More likely that not it takes some sort of outside encouragement to reach the point of extremism. Although the path seems concrete and is rather precarious
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When making ties between the radicalization process and groupthink, you see that being radicalized involves individuals adopting a terrorist’s mindset (Counterterrorism Division ). Just understand that groupthink is a contradiction. This suggests that radicalization requires you to fight against a common enemy that has betrayed you, and by committing these acts you will suppress the feelings of alienation. What is interesting about groupthink is it makes the act of terrorism even more frightening, because these groups have accepted the entity that makes them feel alienated and continue to carry out violent acts to make a …show more content…
Shaikh was 19-years-old, attending high school, and enlisted with the Canadian Army Cadets (Cirincione; Bonino). On top of that he was involved with other activities his religion did not support: drinking, smoking, and hanging around girls (Cirincione; Bonino). From this point forward he knew a change had to be made for his family to accept him again, so he embarked on an educational program to Pakistan. It was there, during the instructional sessions, that Shaikh was presented the opportunity to meet Taliban members (Cirincione; Bonino). He was not hugely into politics, so Shaikh was unaware of Taliban’s significance. The one message that resonated with him was, “the way to bring about change in the world is by jihad, violent action (Cirincione; Bonino).” For Shaikh, this was the beginning of a downward tailspin toward radical
When making ties between the radicalization process and groupthink, you see that being radicalized involves individuals adopting a terrorist’s mindset (Counterterrorism Division ). Just understand that groupthink is a contradiction. This suggests that radicalization requires you to fight against a common enemy that has betrayed you, and by committing these acts you will suppress the feelings of alienation. What is interesting about groupthink is it makes the act of terrorism even more frightening, because these groups have accepted the entity that makes them feel alienated and continue to carry out violent acts to make a …show more content…
Shaikh was 19-years-old, attending high school, and enlisted with the Canadian Army Cadets (Cirincione; Bonino). On top of that he was involved with other activities his religion did not support: drinking, smoking, and hanging around girls (Cirincione; Bonino). From this point forward he knew a change had to be made for his family to accept him again, so he embarked on an educational program to Pakistan. It was there, during the instructional sessions, that Shaikh was presented the opportunity to meet Taliban members (Cirincione; Bonino). He was not hugely into politics, so Shaikh was unaware of Taliban’s significance. The one message that resonated with him was, “the way to bring about change in the world is by jihad, violent action (Cirincione; Bonino).” For Shaikh, this was the beginning of a downward tailspin toward radical