ThreatsWatch.Org: RapidRecon: New Study on the Radicalization Process of Homegrown Terrorists
The Center for Terrorism Research (CTR) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where I serve as Deputy Director, released its latest study, Homegrown Terrorists in the U.S. and U.K.: An Empirical Examination of the Radicalization Process. Authored by CTR Director Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and CTR Research Analyst Laura Grossman, the study explores the radicalization process of homegrown terrorists–Westerners who have chosen to take up arms against the society in which they were born or raised. It examines six different steps are particularly significant as homegrown terrorists radicalize: the adoption of a legalistic interpretation of Islam, coming to trust only a select and ideologically rigid group of religious authorities, viewing the West and Islam and irreconcilably opposed, manifesting a low tolerance for perceived religious deviance, attempting to impose religious beliefs on others, and the expression of radical political views.
