In preventing violent extremism, words matter

MARK DUCKWORTH • May 19, 2020

The changing security environment

In 2015 the Council of Australian Governments published a high-level strategy on counter- terrorism. A lot has happened since then.  The recent comments by the Director-General of Security in February 2020 make it clear that there needs to be a restatement about the best approaches to countering violent extremism, community engagement and building community resilience.

One of the comments by the Director-General of Security was on the increasing threat of right-wing extremism.  As he stated, “Intolerance based on race, gender and identity, and the extreme political views that intolerance inspires, is on the rise across the western world in particular. Right-wing extremism has been in ASIO’s sights for some time, but obviously this threat came into sharp, terrible focus last year in New Zealand.”

The 2015 Strategy was broadly constructed to cover the key issues needed to understand, and develop policy on, the terrorist risks and threats. It was based on five core elements that remain current but need updating:

·       Challenging violent extremist ideologies

·       Stopping people from becoming terrorists

·       Shaping the global environment

·       Disrupting terrorist activity within Australia

·       Effective response and recovery

Since 2015 the nature of the terrorist threat has evolved and understanding what is, and is not, effective has become more sophisticated. There is now an opportunity to cover these matters more directly in a revised Strategy.

In 2015 the Strategy’s focus was primarily on ISIL, AQ and on those within Australia inspired by these groups. There was only passing reference to terrorism by other groups.

A new strategy would no doubt be updated to reflect the changing global security context - in particular, the end of the isle ‘caliphate ‘, the rise of increased white supremacist movements, and the importance of online influence and penetration.

What are extremists anyway?

The Canadian “Terrorist Threat to Canada” report (April 2019, p. 8) includes a useful description of right-wing extremism (RWE), stating that it is:

traditionally driven by hatred and fear, and includes a range of individuals, group, often online communities, that back a wide range of issues and grievances, including, but not limited to: anti-government and anti-law enforcement sentiment, advocacy of white nationalism and racial separation, ant-Semitism and Islamophobia, anti-immigration, male supremacy (misogyny) and homophobia.

It is important to have a good definition as some have raised concern that the term “Right- Wing Extremism” poses the risk of demonising all those who hold conservative political views. A definition like this will make clear that RWE requires the holding of extreme views that move beyond merely being ‘conservative’ to explicitly embrace racial, ethnic or religious exclusion or anti-government sentiment.

We should recall that for the last two decades it has also been evident that the term “Islamic” extremism has in fact permitted the populist vilification of the whole of Islam.

The number of individuals across Australia whose beliefs and actions threaten other people’s free exercise of their democratic rights and freedoms is small. Ideologically motivated violence is usually based on a view that there is only one ‘good’ or ‘right’ way to live often including a belief that one race, ethnicity or religion is ‘better’ than another.

For these reasons, an updated Strategy also needs to emphasis two other points:

·       The evidence confirms that violent extremism is not a problem of whole communities in our society, but rather that of a small number of individuals and their personal networks.

·       Protesters are not terrorists. Extinction Rebellion and Occupy Wall Street protests, like other civil disobedience actions, can cause significant inconvenience to commuters in Australia’s cities.  However, there should be no false equivalence between issues-based protest activities and either extreme right wing activity or ISIL inspired threats of violence. Indeed Extinction Rebellion makes clear that its focus is non-violent civil disobedience.

 Effective prevention

In the last five years there has been considerable research and experience on what governments and civil society can do to prevent terrorism. The sections on “Challenging violent extremist ideologies” and “Stopping people from becoming terrorists” need to be updated to reflect this more sophisticated understanding.

There needs to be greater focus on the demography of terrorists in Australia. Terrorism in Australia is still overwhelmingly a young male activity. While there is evidence of some change in this around the world and an increasing number of women drawn to extremism, the Lowy Institute summary shows that in Australia perpetrators are around 84% male and 91% under 35. The revised strategy needs to show how policy seeks to acknowledge this and that the causes of terrorist activity is strongly connected with the identity of some young males and the pull factors evident in joining a group that gives them a sense of superiority and entitlement.  This links in subtext found in both ISIL-inspired and RWE propaganda which appeals to racial and religious exclusivism and male superiority.

Extremist ideologies often offer false promises and rewards or a sense of purpose and belonging that appear to fill the lack of purpose and belonging. These vulnerable individuals are often deliberately targeted by extremists in Australia or overseas.

We have learnt much about how to challenge violent extremist ideology more effectively. Just rebutting extremist claims is not enough.  The strategy needs to be more explicit on the emotional elements. Well-crafted tracts on the fallacy of extremist views and on the virtues of democracy are not enough.

Definition of terrorism

Terrorism is a tactic used with the aim of achieving an extreme political, religious or ideological goal.

Not all violence is inspired by extremism and not all extremists support violence as a means of advancing their views. We need to make sure that the internationally recognised definitions of terrorism, which includes an ideological or political goal, is not watered down. The nature of terrorism and violent extremism is that there is an “in group” and an “out group” (which is usually most of the rest of the world). This type of exclusivism is key, and would be a grave error to extend the definition to include:

·       extreme violence that has no ideological agenda; or

·       extreme political agendas that do not advocate the use of terrorist tactics.

Words matter

The revised Strategy needs to be very careful in the language it uses.  Recently the Canadian minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness made a Statement about commonly used terminology:

While this terminology has been in use for many years, that does not mean it is sufficient or precise enough. Therefore, I have asked officials to conduct a review and make the appropriate changes to the language used throughout the government to describe extremism.

Words matter. We must never equate any one community or entire religions with extremism.

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2018/12/statement-by-minister-goodale-on-the-public-report-on-the-terrorist-threat-in-canada.html

Community resilience

The 2015 Strategy includes a small section acknowledging the important of resilience. The Strategy states (p. vi): “The Australian community’s resilience is important to everything we do to counter terrorism. Building and maintaining our resilience allows us to push back against terrorists’ attempts to intimidate us and undermine social cohesion.”

There is a longer section under “stopping people from becoming terrorists” (pp. 10-11) on social cohesion in the context of addressing the drivers of radicalisation.

However, it says little more about what this is.

We know that connected communities are resilient communities because they are ready to look after each other in times of crisis, including an incident of violent extremism. They function reliably and well whilst under stress; successfully adapt; are self-reliant; and have high levels of social support, social cohesion and social capacity. These social support systems include neighbourhood connections; family and kinship networks; intergenerational supports; good links between communities, institutions and services; and mutual self-help groups.

Therefore, building resilient communities is important because they are more likely to adapt in positive and healthy ways to changes or challenges economic or social circumstances. Australia’s social resilience based on the diversity and strength of all its various individual and community links and relationships. Division between people, or groups in our communities, reduces the diversity and strength of our networks, weakens our social cohesion, and limits our ability to adapt proactively to change and unexpected events.

Recovery

Currently Australia is focussed on the personal, community and economic recovery from bushfires and the growing consequences of COVID-19. Within Australia there has been little work on how we would recover from a major terrorist event. Focus in response by authorities is clearly important. Learning from the current crises, we can better prepare for the social and economic consequences of a terrorist act. Clearly the major consequences is the death and injuries and long term effects on survivors caused by the violence of an act of terrorism.

However there are other consequences. It has often been identified that following terrorist incidents in Australia and overseas, minority groups in Australia suffer significant vilification. The racial vilification of the Chinese community because of COVID-19 is a similar occurrence. We know one of the main aims of terrorists is to drive communities further apart. Furthermore there can be significant economic disruption, often medium to long term, arising from terrorist incidents.   The 2015 Strategy part on recovery really focusses on short-term relief.  An updated Strategy needs more on the issues of longer term social and economic recovery and how joint action by government and communities can help hold society together at times of shock and stress and help develop and sustain more resilient communities.