Adolescents Engaged in Radicalisation and Terrorism: A Dimensional and Categorical Assessment

Since 2010 and the founding of the Islamic State, the radicalisation phenomenon in Europe has involved more adolescents and converts to Islam than in previous Islamist terrorist group movements (e.g., Al-Qaeda). In most cases, these adolescents are “homegrown terrorists,” a challenging difference, as they are in confrontation with their home and societal environment. As a new and emerging phenomenon, radicalisation leads to many questions. Are empathic capacities altered? Are they presenting psychiatric pathologies or suicidal tendencies that explain why they put themselves in serious dangers? Are they just young delinquents who simply met a radical ideology? In January 2018, by special Justice Department authorisation, we contacted all minors (N = 31) convicted in France for “criminal association to commit terrorism.” We assessed several sociodemographic, clinical and psychological variables, including empathy and suicidality, in half of them (N = 15) and compared them with 101 teenagers convicted for non-terrorist delinquency who were placed in Closed Educational Centres (CEC). The results show that adolescents engaged in radicalisation and terrorism do not have a significant prevalence of psychiatric disorders, suicidal tendencies or lack of empathy. It also appears that they have different psychological profiles than delinquent adolescents. “Radicalised” adolescents show better intellectual skills, insight capacities and coping strategies. In addition, the manifestation of their difficulties is less externalised than adolescents from the CEC, having committed very few delinquent acts.

ISIL in Iraq: A Critical Analysis of the UN Security Council’s Gendered Personification of (Non)States

Legal feminist theories have troubled dominant conceptions of statehood, revealing the threat of the ‘Other’ as integral to the hegemonic masculinity of powerful states. In this paper I provide a critical gendered discourse analysis of the UN Security Council’s response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL). I consider the role of personification in constituting legal subjects as states (persons) and excavate this from the Council’s resolutions concerning Iraq. In constituting ISIL as a barbaric, hypermasculine terror group in relational opposition to the state of Iraq, the Council draws on gendered normativities ordinarily veiled by seemingly objective legal criteria as to the creation of states. Whilst the state of Iraq is constituted through the hegemonic model of statehood, one premised upon democratic, liberal Westphalian ideals, it is still subject to the paternalism of the Security Council. In this way, the state of Iraq is framed as failing to reach a particular masculine standard of statehood, and is thus subject to the continuation of ‘civilising’ discourses. Thus, instead of asking whether ISIL is or is not a state under international law, it is revealing to consider how responses to it work to maintain and (re)produce a graded, hierarchical international community of states.

The lived experience of surviving from the Islamic State attack and capture in Iraq and Syria: An arts-based qualitative study with Yazidi young women

Background: In August 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked the Sinjar district and destroyed several villages and towns and killed several individuals. Aim: In this study, the Yazidi young women who survived the ISIS attack were encouraged to express their lived experiences through paintings following participation in a 6-month art-based intervention program. Methods: A total of 13 Yazidi Kurdish females aged 18 to 25 years (Mean: 21.7 years) were invited to participate in an art-based (drawing and painting) course for 6 months in 2018. They were invited to draw or paint images that portrayed their lived experiences of attack and capture by the ISIS. Qualitative research situated within feminist methodology was used with the young women in this study. The interviews were analyzed using the descriptive content analysis method. Results: The paintings and narratives of the participants were constructed into three main themes: fear and traumatic experiences; feeling of hopelessness; and freedom and hope. During the attack and capture, due to the escape, rape, and horrific treatments by the ISIS fighters, the young women were traumatized severely. They were sold as a sex slave by the ISIS fighters. The participants still had severe anxiety and psychological challenges after being free from the capture. However, despite their traumatic experiences and feeling of hopelessness, most of them were hoping for freedom and a better future. Conclusions: This study showed that the Yazidi young females still experienced psychological challenges burdens even 3 years after the traumatic day. However, the participants showed their resilience through feeling hopeful for freedom and a better future.

Helping Communities Confront Extremism

False claims disseminated on social media by extremists can convince ordinary people not just to sit in their armchairs and rage at the violence of one side or another but to leave their homes either to riot at the Capitol in Washington, DC, for example, or to sneak over international borders in order to join the so-called “Islamic State.” Governments' softer counterextremist policies may focus on messaging but tend to overlook the specific claims aimed at those vulnerable to radicalisation. Furthermore, general lack of trust in officialdom can undermine its messaging or even serve to bolster the extremist “us and them” narrative. This chapter suggests that, by harnessing their specialist information literacy knowledge and skills, librarians can build on their positive social capital and assume an active role in developing in their users the critical thinking and awareness necessary to identify and expose misleading extremist propaganda, thereby helping to make their local communities safer.