What do you think?
Rate this book
Radicalisering Ontrafeld: tien redenen om een terroristische aanslag te plegen
In het huidige politieke en publieke debat over wat mensen tot terrorisme drijft, staan twee opvattingen lijnrecht tegenover elkaar. Politiek rechts ziet radicalisering hoofdzakelijk als een teken van religieus en politiek fanatisme, terwijl links radicalisering vooral wijt aan slechte sociaaleconomische omstandigheden. In Radicalisering ontrafeld verrijkt en nuanceert terrorismedeskundige Teun van Dongen dit debat door te laten zien dat daarnaast ook zaken als groepsdruk en een hang naar status een grote rol in het radicaliseringsproces kunnen spelen. Aan de hand van memoires van en interviews met jihadstrijders en voormalige leden van groepen als de IRA en de RA, komt hij tot negen redenen waarom mensen terrorist worden. In een tijd waarin radicalisering volop in de politieke en publieke belangstelling staat, verschaft Van Dongen een dieper inzicht in de achtergronden van het fenomeen en legt hij uit hoe ermee om te gaan.
156 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 16, 2019
At last a sober, non-ideological charged analysis of what drives terrorists! The Dutch academic Van Dongen goes very broad: he also looks at the 19th-century Russian anarchists, the left-wing terror movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the Northern Irish organizations, the Oklahoma attack in 1994, and of course the many jihadi attacks from Nine Eleven on, culminating in Islamic State.
He makes a distinction between politico-religious motives and personal ones. And his most relevant conclusion is that the personal motives, such as the need for recognition, for certainty, the victim cult, the drive for adventure and others, are really the deciding factor: "both extreme-left and jihadist terrorists therefore use violence for reasons that are political, but that are less ideologically loaded than the objectives of their organizations suggest. Their attacks are, as in nationalist-oriented groups such as the IRA and the Basque ETA, rather forms of resistance to the oppression, real or alleged, of a social group with which the perpetrators identify themselves ".
In his epilogue, Van Dongen ventures into advising the government in tackling terrorist movements, and as could be expected he places the emphasis on prevention and flexibility: look at inspiring and effective practices in dealing with youth gangs or sects; and do not demonize them too much, because that's what only makes them bigger. Of course, that sounds easy in practice. I also find his advice on tackling only perpetrators and not ideas a bit too shallow: I follow the principle (a society must be able to deal with diversity in opinions), but at the same time I think that some ideas can indeed pose an existential danger and need to be addressed (in the right way of course). Finally, I fully agree with Van Dongen: do not let yourself be taken over by fear, terrorist movements come and go.
He makes a distinction between politico-religious motives and personal ones. And his most relevant conclusion is that the personal motives, such as the need for recognition, for certainty, the victim cult, the drive for adventure and others, are really the deciding factor: "both extreme-left and jihadist terrorists therefore use violence for reasons that are political, but that are less ideologically loaded than the objectives of their organizations suggest. Their attacks are, as in nationalist-oriented groups such as the IRA and the Basque ETA, rather forms of resistance to the oppression, real or alleged, of a social group with which the perpetrators identify themselves ".
In his epilogue, Van Dongen ventures into advising the government in tackling terrorist movements, and as could be expected he places the emphasis on prevention and flexibility: look at inspiring and effective practices in dealing with youth gangs or sects; and do not demonize them too much, because that's what only makes them bigger. Of course, that sounds easy in practice. I also find his advice on tackling only perpetrators and not ideas a bit too shallow: I follow the principle (a society must be able to deal with diversity in opinions), but at the same time I think that some ideas can indeed pose an existential danger and need to be addressed (in the right way of course). Finally, I fully agree with Van Dongen: do not let yourself be taken over by fear, terrorist movements come and go.
Displaying 1 of 1 review