RADICALIZATION: MADE IN THE USA?
By Matthew Levitt
When officials announced the successful prevention of a plot in New York to bomb synagogues and down airplanes with rocket-propelled grenades, many reacted with shock at the prospect of locally radicalized violent extremists plotting attacks here at home. Indeed, policymakers, long focused on the radicalization problem facing our European allies, were slow to realize that domestic radicalization and terrorist recruitment is a problem here in the United States as well. While short of the acute radicalization and recruitment crisis facing many European countries, recent events from Minneapolis to Atlanta suggest the United States is not immune from similar phenomena on our side of the Atlantic.
Overall, Muslim-American communities have had a relatively positive integration experience—particularly in comparison to Europe. This is often attributed to the United States’ inclusive, immigrant-friendly environment, stringent and well-enforced anti-discrimination policies, and—most of all—the strong belief in an equal opportunity to climb the socio-economic ladder and achieve financial prosperity. In the United States communities are integrated into society without having to sacrifice their distinct cultural identities.
But recent months have seen troubling developments on this front. In October 2008, a Somali youth apparently radicalized and recruited in the Minneapolis area, participated in what the FBI believes is the first instance of an American suicide bomber anywhere. In Minneapolis, the FBI reports, “there has been an active and deliberate attempt to recruit individuals—all of who are young men, some only in their late teens—to travel to Somalia to fight or train on behalf of al-Shabaab.” None of these recruits are believed to have been tasked to return home and conduct attacks in the U.S., but the FBI remains concerned about such a possibility. Lashkar-e-Taibah, the group behind the Mumbai attacks, maintains “facilitation, procurement, fundraising, and recruitment activities worldwide, including in the United States,” according to the FBI.
For my full article, published by the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, is available here.
