Countering Violent Extremism: Scientific Methods & Strategies, a 2011 publication by the Air Force Research Laboratory, was just re-released with a new introduction that touts, "the wisdom contained in this paper collection is more relevant than ever."
One of the articles in the paper is Dr. Tawfik Hamid's "A Strategic Plan to Defeat Radical Islam," which is informed by the author's self-described former life as an Islamic extremist (today he's a fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies).
Much of the rest of the document is thoughtful and lucid.
Hamid's article is bananas.
Citing no evidence, Hamid blames jihadism on sexual frustration arising from conservative religious beliefs among Muslim women, and calls the wearing of hijab a form of "passive terrorism," and says that hijabi women implicitly refuse to "speak against or actively resist terrorism."
Hamid's theory of radicalization states that terrorism stems from a lack of sexual activity among young men and that addressing this issue is key to reducing support for militant groups. "I believe young Muslims are motivated to join radical groups because of sexual deprivation," he writes, claiming further that "addressing the factors causing deprivation in this life can interrupt the radicalization process and reduce the number of suicide attacks by jihadists."
An expert on the subject of foreign fighters disagrees. "There is virtually no evidence that sexual deprivation is somehow a cause of radicalization, or suicide attacks," says Amarnath Amarasingam, a fellow at George Washington University's Program on Extremism. "From my interviews with jihadists in various organizations, it is clear that they are there for a complex variety of reasons. To simply attribute their motivations to sexual depravity is to miss the point entirely."
U.S. MILITARY WHITE PAPER DESCRIBES WEARING HIJAB AS "PASSIVE TERRORISM"
(Image: Anime Hijab Moslem Girl 2
, Shinyoo91, CC-BY)
