The Jihadi Next Door

Download or read book The Jihadi Next Door written by Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recruitment of ISIS terrorists may have begun as an extremist crusade in Iraq, but it has quickly become a global phenomenon that is taking hold of people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems. The iconic image of a terrorist as an old, angry, middle-eastern man is long gone. It has since been replaced by young men and women of all races and religious upbringings, in tactical gear and ski masks, carrying heavy artillery. From the outside looking into the Islamic State, most people see these men and women as nothing more than evil terrorists with a psychotic penchant for violence. Internally, they perceive themselves as freedom fighters or mujahedeen, who violate the laws of men to protect their community according to the will of Allah. Ultimately, neither of these perceptions are based in reality. While some experts claim that terrorist recruitment is completely random, criminologist Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco has identified clear patterns which can be used to explain how regular people are being conscripted into terrorism. Using interviews with convicted terrorists, in-depth research and analysis of extremist propaganda, and case-specific details, Dr. Mehlman-Orozco provides nuanced theories into the methods of terrorist recruitment—methods which can be used to identify persons at high risk of being targeted. The Jihadi Next Door provides unprecedented information that can be used to actually combat terrorism. By laying bare the tactics used by ISIS to deceive and exploit new recruits and exposing the veneer these extremists operate under, Dr. Mehlman-Orozco hopes to empower readers with the knowledge needed to prevent future recruitment and thereby preventing acts of terrorism.

Download or read book The Terrorist Next Door written by Erick Stakelbeck and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The threat of terrorism in America, the Obama administration assures us, is contained and controlled. Recent attempted attacks like the Times Square bombing, the “underwear bombing” on a flight over Detroit, and the attack on a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Oregon were all isolated plots that failed anyway. In the words of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, “The system worked.” Don’t believe it. In , investigative reporter Erick Stakelbeck exposes the staggering truth about our national security: the Obama administration is concealing and whitewashing the enormous terrorist threat growing right here within America’s borders. If you believe terrorism is only a problem for other countries, Stakelbeck’s on-the-ground reporting will open your eyes. He has been inside America’s radical mosques, visited U.S.-based Islamic enclaves, and learned about our enemies by going straight to the source—interviewing al-Qaeda-linked terrorists themselves.

Download or read book The Jihad Next Door written by Dina Temple-Raston and published by Public Affairs. This book was released on 2007-12-07 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They called themselves the Arabian Knights. They were six Yemeni-American friends, a gang of high-school soccer stars, a band of brothers on the grim side streets of Lackawanna's First Ward, just a stone's throw from Buffalo. Later, people would argue about why they left western New York in the spring of 2001 to attend an al-Qaeda camp. Some said they traveled to Afghanistan to become America's first sleeper cell—terrorists slumbering while they awaited orders from on high. Others said that their ill-fated trip was a lark, an adventurous extension of their youthful wrestling with what it meant to be Muslim in America. Dina Temple-Raston returns to Lackawanna to tell the story of a group of young men—born and brought up in small town America—who left otherwise unremarkable lives to attend an al-Qaeda camp. Though they sought to quietly slip back into their roles as middle class Americans, the 9/11 attacks made that impossible. The Jihad Next Door is the story of pre-emptive justice in the age of terror. It follows a handful of ordinary men through an extraordinary time when Muslims in America are often instantly suspect, their actions often viewed through the most sinister lens.

Download or read book Terrorist Histories written by Caoimhe Nic Dhaibheid and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses provides a series of in-depth portraits of men and women who have been labelled ‘terrorists’, from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Bridging historical methodologies and theoretical approaches to terrorism studies, it seeks to contribute to the developing historicising of terrorism studies. This is achieved principally through a prosopographical approach. In the preponderance of detailed statistical and quantitative data on the practice of terrorism and political violence, the individuals who participate in terrorist acts are often obscured. While ideologies and organisations have attracted much scholarly interest, less is known of the personal trajectories into political violence, particularly from a historical perspective. The focus on a relatively narrow cast of high-profile terrorist ‘villains’, to a large part driven by popular and media attention, results in a somewhat skewed picture; of equal value, arguably, is a more sustained reflection on the lives of lesser-known individuals. The book sits at the juncture between terrorism studies, historical biography and ethnography. It comprises case studies of ten individuals who have engaged in political violence in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in a number of locations and with a variety of ideological motivations, from Russian-inflected anarchism to Islamist extremism. Through detailed empirical research, crucial themes in the study of terrorism and political violence are explored: the diverse individual radicalisation pathways, the question of disengagement and re-engagement, various counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency strategies adopted by governments and security forces, and the changing nature and perception of terrorism over time. Although not explicitly comparative, a number of themes resonate between the case studies, which will be drawn together in the conclusion to this book. These include the role of migration in radicalisation, the influence of radical family heritages, the experience of imprisonment and the narratives which individuals construct to tell their own terrorist life-stories. It also provides an historically grounded answer to one of the most contentious and heated debates in recent literature on terrorism studies: ‘what leads a person to turn to political violence?’ In examining the life-narratives of a diverse range of men and women who at some point embraced violence, this book seeks to contribute to a growing understanding of the entire arc of a terrorist lifespan, from radicalisation to mobilisation, to disengagement and beyond. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, terrorism studies, security studies and politics in general.

Download or read book The Making of a Homegrown Terrorist written by Peter A. Olsson MD and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the factors that lead some individuals to become terrorists? In this book, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst examines case histories of terrorism and reveals how radicalized youths living next door can become dangerous homegrown terrorists. Religious zeal and passionate dogma can be powerful motivators for homegrown recruits of terrorist organizations. In this book, Peter A. Olsson, MD, applies his years of work with disordered personalities to the psychological understanding of why seemingly ordinary Americans turn into murderers of their countrymen. He identifies the psychodynamic patterns of the lives of those who become "homegrown terrorists" and commit acts of cold-blooded murder, examining 20 detailed case histories of individuals—often youths or young adults—to provide theoretical and practical understandings. The book focuses on individuals that include Timothy McVeigh; Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber"; the "Shoe-Bomber" Richard Reid; Colleen LaRose, a.k.a. "Jihad Jane"; Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born, former U.S. Army officer who opened fire on American troops at Fort Hood, Killeen, TX, killing 13 and injuring more than 30; and Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tzarnaev, the two brothers charged with placing pressure cooker bombs at the finish line area of the 2013 Boston Marathon. It also delves into topics such as distinguishing between "good charisma" in a youth versus "evil charisma" and recognizing the characteristics of a healthy group or leader versus those with unhealthy motivations—subject matter that will be of interest and importance to anyone from concerned citizens and parents to teachers and terrorism specialists.

Download or read book ISIS Exposed written by Erick Stakelbeck and published by Regnery Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The terror masters of ISIS are determined to get America's attention. They’ve humiliated the Iraqi Army we trained and seized territory in Iraq that we had secured at the cost of so many American lives. They’ve beheaded American journalists on camera in a direct challenge to the power and resolve of the United States. And now ISIS is calling for "city wolves" across the United States to act on their dedication to the Islamic State’s blood-drenched ideology and murder innocent American citizens at random. Who is ISIS? Where did it come from, and what is driving its successful campaign of murder and conquest? Our government and our media alike seemed to be blindsided by the Islamic State’s blitzkrieg-like advance, which forced American troops back into Iraq. ISIS has conquered a territory roughly the size of the state of Indiana, rules over eight million terrorized souls, and has even revived the practice of legal slavery. And yet the true motivations, inner workings, and future plans of this terror state and its mysterious caliph seem almost as obscure as when ISIS first burst onto the world scene. In ISIS Exposed, veteran investigative reporter Erick Stakelbeck gets inside the story of the new caliphate and reveals just how clear and present a threat it is.

Download or read book War and Peace in Somalia written by Michael Keating and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the last thirty years Somalia has experienced violence and upheaval. Today, the international effort to help Somalis build a federal state and achieve stability is challenged by deep-rooted grievances, local conflicts and a powerful insurgency led by Al-Shabaab. Consisting of forty-four chapters by conflict resolution specialists and the world's leading experts on Somalia, this volume constitutes a unique compendium of insights into the insurgency and its impact. War and Peace in Somalia explores the legacies of past violence, especially impunity, illegitimacy and exclusion, and the need for national reconciliation. Drawing on decades of experience and months of field research, the contributors throw light on diverse forms of local conflict, its interrelated causes, and what can be done about it. They share original research on the role of women, men and youth in the conflict, and present new insight into Al-Shabaab--particularly the group's multi-dimensional strategy, the motivations of its fighters, their foreign links, and the prospects for engagement. This ground-breaking volume illuminates the war in Somalia, and sets out what can and should be done to bring it to an end. For policymakers and researchers covering Somalia, East Africa, extremism or conflict resolution, this is a must-read.