Again I hear politicians and other ‘experts’ address the issue of radicalisation, as they have been doing for many years in the wake of every foiled or accomplished terrorist attack. Their narrative suggests that radicalisation derives from external factors, through no fault of the individual who has ‘chosen’ to join a terrorist gang, like the criminal who uses the traditional excuse: “I didn’t mean to hold up that bank and kill that guy, I just got mixed up with the wrong crowd”.
No-one had a perfect childhood or lives a perfect life and we all share the same world. Many of us are subject to the same pressures, influences and belief systems. Often we share social, political or theological discontent, yet only a very few become ‘radicalised’.
Back in Germany in the 1970’s we were rebellious, made ourselves noticed and heard in protest marches, but only a minority became radicalised and joined a terrorist organisation such as the Red Army Faction. Most of us chose a peaceful path that promoted a spiritual-social revolution, mostly through non-organised agitation, promoting ‘guerrilla goodness’ and we created a reformed, liberated social mindset, a new world order, without firing a single bullet. We all lived under the same political and social conditions, therefore those who chose terrorism could only have radicalised themselves. The same phenomena has repeatedly confirmed itself to me in many parts of the world, where common criminals tried to justify their acts of cowardly cruelty with a self-fabricated, illusionary cause.
Radicalisation is a choice made by the individual. We cannot create a perfect society in order to appease a potential terrorist from becoming radicalised, but we, both parents and educators, can condition our children by teaching them moral values, such as tolerance, respect for life and freedom, self-respect and most of all, ‘right and wrong’, coupled with confidence building activities this will equip them to make the right decision, should they ever be tempted by radicalisation. Such conditioning doesn’t come flat packed or as an on-line crash course. It requires a ‘practise as you preach’ approach.