The international web of terror is fueled by belief. Not all beliefs are accurate, nor are all beliefs unfounded. Islamic extremism has many valid roots that stem back to very real grievances, like the manner in which the Algerian Muslim population was treated during French colonization; the Palestinian al-Nakba in 1948; and even the Christian Crusades to the Holy Land. Although the indiscriminate killing of people will never be justifiable, these past grievances are used in conjunction with current issues to mobilize forces.
Being part of a disadvantaged culture can manifest a perception of inequality, which eventually leads to change. On 01 April 2016, Françoise Schepmans, the mayor of Molenbeek, Belgium, established to the concerned press that Molenbeek has close to 100,000 inhabitants, is predominantly Muslim Moroccan descent, and has an unemployment rate of approximately 30 percent. She goes on to explain that the Molenbeek community remains isolated from the rest of Brussels and does not even speak the dominant language. Absent a national identity and living in a concentric zone with a high poverty rate causes the lower-class outlier to believe that they are not equal with the rest of Belgium. In the case of a large Muslim population, strain can be related back to any, if not all, of the historic grievances and bolster Western resentment.
Once an individual begins to perceive inequalities, he or she begins to confirm them and further separate his or herself from the perceived antagonist. In 2016, Geraldine—a 50-year-old inhabitant of Molenbeek and practitioner of Islam—explains how her son was vulnerable to radicalization because of his disposition. Anis underwent an identity crisis when the Belgian people, his national origin, saw him as Moroccan “while in Morocco they saw him as Belgian and asked [him] ‘Who are you?'” It is at this point that he begins to see the borders that separate him from the rest of his nation. Geraldine goes on to claim that, within a few months of these questions, “Anis started talking about Palestine and Israel, then Syria and then about Islam, saying that it was the duty of all Muslims to help those in distress.” Eventually he confirmed his bias and left Belgium to fight with the Islamic State (IS). However, he would not be the only one to feel this way.
Organizations, like IS, further solidify anti-social beliefs that a vulnerable person, like Anis, may have by drawing them in and allowing them to fight on the front lines of oppression. According to some estimates, IS had 40,000 foreign fighters that traveled to Syria to fight. The Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015-16 (bar and restaurant, bataclan concert hall, and Stade De France) were a majority conducted by local nationals—Brahim Abdeslam, Salah Abdeslam, Abdelhamid Aboaoud, Chakib Akrouh, Omar Ismail Mostefai, Aamy Amimour, Foued Mohamed-Aggad, Ahmad al-Mohammad, Bilal Hadfi, and M al-Mahmod. Seventy percent of the attackers where indigenous to either France or Belgium; 60 percent of the attackers lived in ostracized concentric suburbs; and approximately 90 percent of them had been to Syria to fight with IS. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of the attackers in Brussels follow a very similar trend to Anis.
Outcast cultures have an increased risk for developing deep anti-social behavior ideologies. Individual disposition derives from inherited social norms which, according to Travis Hirschi, delineates social control into four categories: attachment to others; commitment to the group; involvement/time spent with the social group; and belief in the system of rules. Depending on how much social collateral the individual has invested with the major school of thought defines how much he or she is a part of the group. However, if he or she does not assimilate, then he or she is at risk of conforming to a different sub-culture. If the sub-culture that appeals to him or her is deviant, in this case IS, then the individual will most likely develop deviant behaviors. Much like a grape that is no longer connected to the vine: once, it was fed and grew, but when it is plucked and thrown aside, it begins to decay. It is in this manner that deviant radicalization develops from the lack of social ties, which festers and manifests into a need to find a group that harbors those same feelings, like IS.
Although the Paris and Brussels attackers should not be over-generalized to all violent extremism, the trends that they followed are a common thread that highlight how previous plights shape an individual’s belief system and become a physical response. A person’s actions are the compilation of cognitive ability, belief systems, and experience. Beyond the cognitive process, actions derive from opportunity. The absence of a chance for violence may displace the activity. What he or she finds determines what type of group or ideology to which he or she will conform. Past blunders, like the counterterrorism strategies used by the French in Algiers and the 200-300 Muslim protesters that were “massacred” in Paris, is only fuel that confirms the idea that the individual is treated different because of his or her identity. When this chain occurs, and the individual has the option to conform to an anti-social sub-culture, the individual is at an increased risk of pushing back on the status quo, and eventually violence. In modern times, the progression from strain through cognitive rationality to a physical action has reached a point where tactical violence seems to be a preferred method by groups like the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN; National Liberation Front), Hamas, or the Jaysh Al-Mahdi Militia (JAM); and, all of these groups will use their experience to neutralize any moral conundrum and justify their cause.