As the premiere video-sharing application, YouTube has been particularly useful to terrorist groups, including ISIS. As such, it has also been a target for counter terrorism efforts, namely the use of counter narrative videos to disrupt and refute the messages put forth by these groups.
The Canadian Incidents Database [CIDB] identified 1,405 terrorist or extremist incidents occurring in Canada between 1960 and 2014, in addition to 410 Canadian-affiliated (perpetrator or target) terrorist or extremist incidents occurring outside of Canada during the same time period.
Incels who have spent time fomenting anger and frustration in online forums also find companionship there.
There is a common motivation to be understood and to engage with those trying to understand them.
Several high-profile acts of violence linked to the incel community have stoked much speculation about the threat.
Repatriation of the mothers brings their children to safety; these young ISIS children committed no crimes.
Macron’s statements and the attacks offered ISIS and al-Qaeda valuable fodder to strike with relevant trending content.
On November 3, as the United States anxiously watched democracy at work, Qatar announced forthcoming democratic processes as well, a welcome move for the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries which have generally shied away from democratic governance.
Many ISIS members have been held for three years or more and could serve out sentences in a short span of time.
ISIS women in camps who have access to phones and social media are angered by their claimed grievances over transfers.
The gender perspective must be kept in mind considering experiences and how their risk of recidivism can be minimized.
The impact of trauma on radicalization and terrorist recruitment has only recently made its way into the collective psyche of counterterrorism researchers and practitioners and is still not well understood.
If a recruiter can talk a person into terrorism, it is also possible to talk him back out of it.
Recruiters continue to be prolific online, encouraging supporters to hope and work toward the Caliphate’s return and to seek revenge on those who destroyed it by mounting attacks at home.
While a Moldovan woman was certainly “rescued” from the well-documented dire conditions at al Hol, she was being held as a detainee in Camp al Hol as an ISIS fighter’s wife.
They were either brought, or born, into the terrorist group by their parents who served ISIS in various capacities.
Some died in Syria and some have made their way back home, but nearly 10,000 male FTFs, approximately 2,000 of them from Europe, are currently being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The SDF acknowledges these escapes, most recently confirming Swedish news reports that ISIS women from the Netherlands, France, Finland, Switzerland and Sweden have all been smuggled out of the camp in recent months.
In an unusual twist, ISIS spokesperson Abu Hamza al-Qurashi broke ranks with previous statements by al Qaeda, its affiliates, and ISIS in singling out and threatening Qatar, rather than their usual targets Saudi Arabia or Western powers.
Defending violence as defensive in nature is in line with terror groups, but there are key differences.