By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
Why would anyone from the Western world want to become war criminals, murdering aid workers in Syria or genociding a minority religious sect thousands of miles from home?
Part of the answer is the same for any Islamic militancy—they feel a holy call to war in what they believe is defensive. It has to be defensive or it is against Islamic law. So they justify this by harnessing the purist banner of Islamic extremist orthodoxy. The violence and brutality is overlooked because in the holy war, the ends are seen as justifying the means, no matter how grim. Yet, this cannot be supported in the Koranic sutras consistently. That does not matter, it is an itch that needs to be scratched within a minority of the Western Muslim populations.
Shared ideology is less important than an overall shared vision. There is obligation but with the phenomenon of the Islamic State, more important to these people will be the realization of the long awaited dream of modern violent Islamic extremists—a real live Caliphate again. The call to action is appealing to some because they feel “kept” in the West and long to break out. Many more will not have the nerve but will support them in prayer, funds and belief.
Power and opportunity—they can help shape it in its early stages. They can help to protect it from other Muslim and non-Muslim players.
Cultural ties are huge. Aside for the enclaves, many traditional Muslim immigrant families in the West share historic and cultural bonds—the more extreme the orthodoxy, the more likely to sympathize. Because sympathy does not mean active involvement, it is impossible to know who or how many.
Prey upon the weak. Naturally, the international jihadist revolutionary recruiters prey upon the weak willed and exploit them. Just recently, women from three Somali families from St. Paul, Minneapolis, are missing and believed to be fighting for the Islamic State. There are 15 to 20 men from the community also overseas with the terrorist Caliphate movement as well.
Maybe there are around 70 Americans in total aligned and fighting for the Islamic State. Thousands are coming from Europe (est. 3,500). Most of them are coming from France. Nearby, most jihadists originate from Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia, according to a collection of sources by the Economist. But Western jihadists make up only a fraction of the estimate 30,000 Islamic State fighters, according to the U.S. government and other sources.
In reality, there are millions of potential international jihadists participants in the war for the Islamic State world-wide. Many of those coming from the West have the means to plan and travel to Syria or Iraq. Stopping them form the leaving the country is one priority. Eliminating them from our soil altogether should be a long-term objective. The other is mitigating or preventing their safe journey or diminishing their expectations enough to visit internal conflict within the Islamic State.
Metro published an article that stated that the British jihadists were disillusioned with the war in the Islamic State. Once there, they wanted to go home and they were punished. So it is possible that the “dream” will eventually become their worst nightmare; having lived in peace in the West so long and Western intelligence officials should take note of these weak links in the fabric of Western Islamist migrations. Even fanatics can experience shell-shock. Paranoia is increasing within the ranks of the Islamic State in general and the acceptance and treatment of Western jihadists is changing. Tricky but necessary. Exploiting this fact is essential for counter-recruitment efforts to infiltration objectives alike.
The above brings up a celebrated mole that worked for Western intelligence agencies named Morten Storm. Morten was a Danish ex-jihadist who had converted to the jihadist life style earlier as a criminal and social misfit and found it to be an outlet for youthful anger. He has a book called “Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA.” He lives in the shadows in an undisclosed location. That lifestyle too might be a more luxurious and appealing of a life promise than that of the primitive Islamic State for a potential counter-jihadists recruit in the future.
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