Muslim converts 'vulnerable to Isis radicalisation', research finds
Westminster attacker Khalid Masood and Lee Rigby killers among British terrorist who converted to Islam
Lizzie Dearden
Home Affairs Correspondent
Wednesday 25 October 2017 00:12
Emergency response workers continue to work over night following major incidents in Westminster Bridge in central London
(EPA)
Muslim converts can be vulnerable to radicalisation because their "vacuum of knowledge" leaves them ill-equipped to reject extremist ideology, a new report has warned.
Research by the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) think-tank found that although the vast majority of converts to Islam are "peaceful and law-abiding", they are over-represented among Isis' foreign fighters and have perpetrated major terror attacks.
"When taken together with other aggravating factors such as possession of a criminal record, paternal absence, and exposure to the messages of radical preachers, the process of conversion can indicate a vulnerability to extremism," the report concluded.
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"Converts are often more malleable and vulnerable to radical rhetoric, often combining enthusiasm to change the world with a vacuum of knowledge about different interpretations of Islam."
Analysts argued that many "dawah" groups working to convert followers to Islam preach fundamentalist Salafi teachings, while Isis has deliberately tailored its propaganda to appeal to those with little religious knowledge.
Dr Julia Rushchenko, an associate fellow at the HJS Centre for the Response to Terrorism and Radicalisation, said jihadi groups have proven capable "of luring a wide range of individuals from across Europe", adding: "Policy-makers and practitioners must be alert to this specific but understudied danger, if they are to counter extremism effectively."
A poster shared on social media by Rayat al-Tawheed, a group of British Isis fighters from London
The research found that "born-again Muslims" who rediscover their faith are also at risk of being drawn into extremism, as are prisoners and people with existing grievances who could seek redemption through jihad.
A mounting body of evidence points to what has been dubbed a "crime-terror nexus", where young people involved in gangs or violent crime are tempted by Isis' problems of action, salvation and purpose.
Those who convert to Islam in prison or the probation system fall into both groups, being left doubly vulnerable to radicalisation.
Why are converts to Islam specifically vulnerable to extremism?
A study for the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism found that the group's foreign fighters in Syria tend to come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have low levels of education and employment, and "lack any basic understanding of the true meaning of jihad or even the Islamic faith".
The research found that most of the militants surveyed were "novices" in their professed religion and some did not know how to pray properly.
Among the Isis fighters who converted to Islam in the UK is Harry Sarfo, a former Royal Mail postman who is now in a German prison after fleeing the group's territories in Syria.
Born into a Ghanaian Catholic family, he told The Independent how he became interested in Islam through speeches he heard during lunch breaks at a sixth form college in east London.
"One of my best mates of Bangladeshi origin started to become more religious and we started to have long conversations about religion, purpose and the hereafter," Sarfo said.
Met Police announce that terror perpetrator Khalid Masood was born Adrian Russell
"I accepted Islam by the age of 20, in a small mosque in east London where friends of mine regularly attended."
He quickly became devout, praying five times a day and making pilgrimages, but it was not until he met an al-Qaeda recruiter in a German prison while serving a sentence for robbery that Sarfo "learned the ideology of tawheed and jihad".
Among other converted Isis supporters is Khalid Masood, who killed five people and injured dozens of others in the Westminster terror attack in March.
UN study finds Isis fighters 'lack basic understanding of Islam'
Muslim converts have also carried out other terror attacks in the UK, including 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who murdered soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich.
They also rank among known extremists who have travelled to Syria and Iraq, including the "White Widow" Sally Jones – who has reportedly been killed in a US drone strike – and Mosul suicide bomber Ronald Fiddler, who called himself Abu Zakariya al-Britani.
Al-Qaeda has also drawn on converts, such as the "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, a Londoner who became a Muslim at Feltham Young Offenders Institution before going on to attempt downing American Airlines Flight 63.
HJS' research called for authorities leading counter-extremism efforts including Prevent to recognise that "the appeal radical Islam as an ideology can extend well beyond communities historically associated with" the religion.
A separate report published by the think tank in March found that 16 per cent of those who committed Islamist terror offences in the UK between 1998 and 2015 were converts – far above the population within the Muslim community as a whole.
It cites figures that show the overall number of British Muslims who were converted rather than born into the religion rose from 60,000 in 2001, to 100,000 in 2010.
Timeline: The emergence of Isis
1/40Timeline: The emergence of Isis
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qa'eda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders.
Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawi's successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI).
Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart.
In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a "real war" with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assad's regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a "conspiracy". Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government.
Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Laden's successor) concerned about Isis' expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi.
Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south.
Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraq's second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world.
Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding.
Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue.
James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff.
Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis' along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar.
Isis release video showing Steven Sotloff's murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley.
Obama tells us that America "will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country"
Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body.
Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital.
Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care.
Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey.
American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films.
Seramedig.org.uk
Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014.
Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this.
Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions.
The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London.
Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city.
EPA/STR
Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more.
Isis' media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist group's al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis' stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group".
Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq
Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland.
Isis's deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike.
US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria.
Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria.
Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic city's ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyra's residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city.
A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters.
The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike.
Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory.
Ahmet Silk/Getty
Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters.
Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamist's positions.
At present, around 5,000 British people convert to Islam every year - most of them women.
The report came as separate research from The Soufan Center warned that thousands of Isis fighters have already returned to their home countries amid confusion over the number of foreign jihadis remaining in the dwindling caliphate.
At least 425 British Isis members have so far returned to the UK, where many are feared to have "disappeared" from the view of security services.
Rory Stewart, an international development minister, previously argued that the only way to deal with most potential returnees was to kill them.
But Max Hill QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has instead called for a focus on "reintegration" in cases where authorities have decided individuals who return should not face prosecution.
He said it was right that security services have left space for those who travelled out of a sense of naivety, at a young age and who return in a "state of utter disillusionment" to be diverted away from the criminal courts.
Richard Barrett, the author of the Soufan report, said: "As the so-called Islamic State loses territorial control of its caliphate, there is little doubt that the group or something similar will survive the worldwide campaign against it so long as the conditions that promoted its growth remain.
"Its appeal will outlast its demise, and while it will be hard to assess the specific threat posed by foreign fighters and returnees, they will present a challenge to many countries for years to come."
IsisIslamic StateradicalisationIslamist extremismIslamismcounter-extremismTerrorismmuslim community
1/2Muslim converts 'vulnerable to Isis radicalisation', research finds