It is a must for any observer of what is happening globally to feel concerned by what is happening in many parts of the world. There are crises that tend to more complexity and entanglement after the confusion and the overlapping of interests as in Syria, Libya and other areas.
There are also terrorist attacks that took place recently in the French city Nice and the German city Munich, with more than a hundred victims and dozens of casualties as a result of these crimes, which are characterized by a great deal of ambiguity, particularly the attack on the Olympic Centre in Munich, where a young terrorist, only 18 years old, holding German and Iranian citizenships, opened fire on unarmed civilians and then committed suicide. Munich police chief, Hubertus Andrea, said that the suspect was not known to police, and that he did not have any known links to terrorist organizations. A few days before this attack, an Afghan refugee attacked a passenger train in the state of Bavaria, using a knife, and the Islamic State organization claimed its responsibility for the attack.
The recent terrorist attacks in several cities, including the US Orlando, the French Nice, and the German Munich, involve a great deal of complexity and ambiguity. Reports indicate that the perpetrators of the Orlando and Nice assault have a record in domestic violence, depression and doubts about their sexual identity, which raises serious questions about the exploitation by terrorist organizations of such individuals in committing terrorist crimes.
What is noticeable to me is that the investigation into the recent crimes also contribute to shuffling the cards, and do not differentiate between attacks directly perpetrated by terrorist elements, and the use by terrorism of potential criminals because of their social and family circumstances. It may be a waste of effort in terms of research of the causes and their treatment at all levels. What I mean is that simply throwing the charge against terrorism without a research in the relationships network and the causes that have social and psychological motivations, perhaps is in the interest of terrorist organizations primarily, as it disperses efforts and causes the spread of fear, terror and anxiety, thus achieving one of the most important objectives of terrorist groups, which is expanding the area of intimidation and fear globally.
I understand that there are special legal and idiomatic confusions for dealing with such issues and crimes, and I also realize that this situation results in very serious adverse effects, including deepening the “Islamophobia” phenomenon worldwide, and the consecration of hostility to Islam and perhaps provoking a non-required conflict between religions, as well as it distracts attention from addressing the other causes that nourish violent crimes such as the proliferation of personal weapons dramatically in some Western countries, and the failure of social integration and smelting policies, and other real reasons worthy of addressing.
I do not doubt that terrorist organizations exploit any turbulent social or economic conditions to spread their ideology and attract predisposed elements to carry out their crimes, and one of the solutions required here does not depend on fighting the head of the snake, namely terrorist organizations, only, but must include addressing societal circumstances, which provide conditions for the penetration of terrorist ideology within some communities.
There should also be a distinction between terrorism, in its idiomatic sense, and between socially motivated crimes. I have noticed that there is a coupling between this type of crime and terrorism, as domestic violence sometimes in the West, for example, is called “intimate terrorism”. Reports from reliable media have talked about that, including a recent report published by the BBC network under the title “The perpetrators of the Offensives in Orlando and Nice had a history of domestic violence”, on 23 July, and pointed out that “both the attackers who carried the offensives in Orlando and Nice, as well as the person who blew the Boston Marathon in America and a number of other prominent individual attackers, all of them have records of intimate terrorism long before the implementation of their broader attacks. “
I understand that there is a high probability for linking people with bad social backgrounds and terrorist attacks, but one must verify these hypotheses so that countries do not to find themselves going after fake tracks, or that they made great efforts in the wrong direction, leaving the real terrorism penetrate and get deeper into the inside of their societies.
The BBC report indicates an extremely important point, namely, that the history of the accused in the recent attacks with depression, domestic violence and hidden sexual identity is in contradiction with the strict masculine approach of the ideology of the Daesh organization, which is anti-gay, but it also points out that “this philosophy is precisely what attracts marginalized and vulnerable individuals”, in the sense that the organization may take advantage of them to commit crimes and to achieve its objectives pragmatically, and that these individuals may respond to the efforts that seek employing them to commit terrorist crimes known to intermediaries from the organization, because they are trying to convince themselves of what is contrary to what they are. These complexities and overlaps that combine security, politics psychology and social aspects need more in-depth scientific studies in order to dismantle the work of terrorism mechanisms and to avoid the aggravation of this danger in the future.
It makes no sense to give in to the idea of the overcoming by a primitive organization like Daesh of the military, intellectual and research capabilities that the world owns, and it is not logical to surrender to canned or ready-to-use ideas in the interpretation of recently repeated offenses. We need serious scientific studies to fathom the phenomenon of terrorism and to dismantle its entanglements and complexities to separate what relates to terrorism, to fight it seriously, and what relates to social and security aspects, to be addressed by appropriate means.
Personally I do not rule out the use by Daesh of modern psychological and scientific theories in recruiting its elements, but we need precise proof in order not to find ourselves in the middle of the road going after clues the organization led us to so as to cause fragmentation of efforts and confusion.
What I am interested in is that proving the employment by Daesh and other terrorist organizations of this psychological and social conditions means that we are facing a source of grave danger, because we are in the face of a vital tributary whose size and spreading are unknown, which is fueling terrorist crimes during the coming period, in what is known as the strategy of “individual wolves”, where it is difficult to track relationships and communications between the perpetrators of the attacks and the members of the organization.
