(Or ISIS / ISIL / etc.)
Actually, reading these account of interviews with captured and convicted Da'esh fighters, I was reminded most of what I read about entry into gangs.
'They are children of the occupation, many with missing fathers at crucial periods (through jail, death from execution, or fighting in the insurgency), filled with rage against America and their own government. They are not fueled by the idea of an Islamic caliphate without borders; rather, ISIS is the first group since the crushed Al Qaeda to offer these humiliated and enraged young men a way to defend their dignity, family, and tribe. This is not radicalization to the ISIS way of life, but the promise of a way out of their insecure and undignified lives; the promise of living in pride as Iraqi Sunni Arabs, which is not just a religious identity but cultural, tribal, and land-based, too.'
Similarly, gang members — economically destitute, often lacking fathers, join gangs (in the neighborhood or in prison) as a means of identity, of security, of pride.
(For that matter, it reminds me of profiles of IRA members, back during the Troubles there.)
Which doesn't mean that they don't need to be dealt with to end the barbarity and death they both serve and deal out, but portraying them all as religious fanatics, let alone as representatives of their particular faith, seems a fatally flawed approach — and if we want to prevent the next generation of people flocking to similar banners, we should consider what do to about the root causes, vs. a simplistic "kill them all" approach.
What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters
They’re drawn to the movement for reasons that have little to do with belief in extremist Islam.
It makes sense that many young men like this are recruited. Is this the entire makeup, doubtful. But certainly ISIS can't keep up recruitment numbers doing the same thing.
The whole movement/org is just weird. Still not much seems to be well understood. In any case we certainly need to address the root problem. Such as offering these young men an alternative.
I have no doubt there are True Believers in the crowd. But I suspect a lot of them are simply looking for an opportunity (fully understood or not) to do something better than the options provided.
So, yes, making sure better options are provided needs to be key tactic.
A few people I listen to say we need to help grassroot groups better market other systems and ideas than ISIS/Al Qaida. Right now both are winning the marketing game and our recent war over there certainly didn't help anything.
+Jon Weber The trick there is finding a way to help "grassroot groups" without their becoming seen (wrongly — or, worse, rightly) as American / CIA fronts.
That is one of the large challenges they are working through yes. With limited success. But one of the big things helping them is what the fighter in the article says, people are tired of fighting. Perhaps their tiredness is greater than their hate? Or growing in that direction.
+Jon Weber It all becomes (for most humans) a matter of the path of least resistance. If the pressures to do something are intolerable, people will do something. If those pressures ease, they will tend to stop (or go back to their normal business).
(It's not quite that simple — living / working in a militarized environment, and doing things like setting off car bombs in markets and things like that, would, I'd think, change a person, make it more difficult to just go back and operate a garage or something. The challenge is to target those who have not yet committed to that violence.)