A former terrorist and the NYPD officer responsible for his arrest spoke at CSIS Monday about strategies for countering violent extremism in today’s world. The Unmaking of Jihadism: The Current Effort to Combat Violent Extremism featured:
- Jesse Morton: Leader of Parallel Networks, former leader and co-founder of Revolution Muslim
- Mitch Silber: Former Director of Intelligence Analysis for the New York City Police Department
- Seth G. Jones: Harold Brown Chair and Director of the Transnational Threats Project at CSIS (Moderator).
Morton and Silber worked on opposite sides of the extremism/CVE divide. Morton said that his traumatic upbringing spawned resentment towards his family and the working class town he grew up in, and that radical Salafi Islam became the outlet through which he expressed this acrimony. The Salafi movement also gave him a community. Morton co-founded Revolution Muslim with his friend Youssef Al-Khattab, a fellow convert to Islam. Abdullah Al-Faisal, a Jamaican cleric who encouraged the killing of Americans, Jews, Hindus, and Christians in his teaching, became Revolution Muslim’s spiritual leader.
Revolution Muslim pioneered the use of Web 2.0 platforms to radicalize individuals without forcing them to travel to terrorist hotbeds around the world. This tactic, which has become a popular recruiting tool for ISIS, involves using social media video lectures to teach large audiences to teach about the militant brand of Salafism. Interested individuals are then contacted by group leaders through end-to-end encrypted messaging services such as Telegram. Morton stressed that Revolution Muslim’s success in evading US law enforcement came through its recognition that the Salafi ideology itself was powerful enough to radicalize individuals without Revolution Muslim having to specifically endorse violent extremism. The group thus remained within its First Amendment rights even though 15-20 terrorist plotters around the world traced their roots back to Revolution Muslim.
Silber furthered Morton’s point, emphasizing that the reason why Revolution Muslim survived in the US for four years was Morton’s exquisite knowledge of First Amendment case law. Morton “frequently danced on the First Amendment line” in his public statements, preventing the authorities from arresting him. Further, Revolution Muslim moved away from the top-down hierarchical approach espoused by Al-Qaeda, allowing individuals around the world to plan and execute their own plots. According to Silber, these factors revolutionized recruiting for terrorist groups around the world. Even Al-Qaeda began publishing an English-language magazine in 2010 that included articles such as “How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.” The Islamic State takes this approach even further. In addition to publishing an English version of Dabiq, ISIS fully embraced Revolution Muslim’s decentralized, web-based strategy, allowing its ideology to continue spreading on the internet even as its territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria has weakened.
It should come as no surprise that ISIS is in the midst of a resurgence in Iraq, despite Prime Minister Al-Abadi’s declaration of victory over the caliphate last December. Morton stressed that the ideologies associated with extremism always outlive the groups that embody them in a particular time period. ISIS technological prowess also allows it to shift from leaderless resistance back to a command/cadre model at any time, enabling the organization to regroup quickly despite frequent military defeats in recent years. According to Silber, ISIS’ fluidity poses a threat particularly for Europe. For instance, 370 Austrians have traveled to Syria and Iraq since ISIS’ establishment, some of whom have returned to Europe. Further, the threat of other terror organizations cannot be discounted, particularly as Al-Qaeda has reemerged as a “moderate” alternative for terrorists turned off by ISIS’ extreme brutality.
For future US counter-terrorism strategy to be effective, Morton believes that more attention must be paid to the internet’s power to sustain extremist ideologies. He does not believe, however, that restricting free speech on social media platforms is the solution. Social media represents a great outlet for people to voice their opinions, and more should be done to encourage dialogue between people with different views to foster the mutual understanding required to bring people from the poles to the center. To this end, Morton stressed that Islamist extremists and the far right need each other, since both ideologies rely on demonization of the other to survive.
Silber disagreed, arguing that updating social media terms of use agreements to restrict certain types of speech would significantly support CVE efforts. Further, Silber highlighted the valuable role human intelligence played in infiltrating Revolution Muslim and documenting its activities. For Silber, training local officers who possess the technical and linguistic ability to penetrate extremists’ digital networks is the model for the future.
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The Bishop has interesting things to say today, especially against partition of Kosovo, an idea Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić is presumably trying to sell on her trip to Washington this week. He also expresses the Church’s concerns about the behavior of the Kosovo authorities, who need to realize that the presence of Serbs south of the Ibar river is among the best arguments against partition. The bolding is in the original text I received this morning:
As a Bishop of Raška and Prizren and an Archpastor of the Orthodox Christians in the regions of Kosovo, Metohija and Raška, with tremendous pastoral and moral responsibility I feel the need to express my grave concern regarding a series of political statements on Kosovo-Metohija in the recent time which fill our hearts with increasing uncertainty and disquiet. For almost twenty years our Diocese supported by our Patriarch and our fellow Bishops, and with financial assistance of the Government of Republic of Serbia and other local and international donors, makes tremendous efforts to provide normal life for our Church, the reconstruction of our destroyed holy sites, the return of our displaced people, as well as the peaceful life of those who still continue to live in this region. Inspired with this concern and the ongoing dialog between Belgrade and Priština in Brussels the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the SOC expressed a clear, unified and unequivocal position in its
statement on 10 May 2018.
It is a matter of public knowledge that our Diocese with the support of the entire Serbian Orthodox Church even before the armed conflict in Kosovo and Metohija made significant efforts to help avoiding the resolution of existing problems by force. We took part in a number of discussions with international diplomats and representatives of Kosovo Albanians, both before and after the armed conflict in 1998-1999, with a clear goal to carry out the Gospel message of our Church that we must be witnesses of peace in the world. At Dečani Monastery during the war, we received and sheltered refugees, Serbs, Albanians, Roma and others, raising our voice amid the violence against innocent civilians, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. After the armed conflict, our Diocese was an active participant in the inter-ethnic dialog and cooperated with international representatives, making tremendous efforts to protect our people and our holy sites. Regrettably, despite all our endeavors around 200.000 of our people were forced to leave their homes in the time of “the internationally granted peace”, many villages, our cemeteries were devastated and 150 churches destroyed. Nevertheless, we did not give up the dialog. Under the sponsorship of the Council of Europe, since 2005 we reconstructed a number of our churches and monasteries as well as the Seminary of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Prizren. Upon invitation of the Government of Serbia in 2008, we took part in the negotiations in Vienna, where we agreed important principles for the protection and future of our people and the holy sites in Kosovo and Metohija.
With such a commitment for dialog and peaceful resolution of all conflicts, we supported the beginning of the technical dialog between Belgrade and Priština in Brussels and hoped that practical agreements would be reached with the goal of providing an easier life for all peoples in the region, protection of our holy sites, property, identity, human rights and freedoms, especially of the vulnerable Serbian people. That is why we are now gravely concerned because of frequent politically and morally irresponsible statements of certain politicians on both sides who talk about a “final solution” in the context of the “territorial partition” and the “border separation between the Serbs and the Albanians”. Such statements among our people but also wider in the region and the world create concern and uneasiness. Does it mean that we will come to the situation that the majority of Kosovo-Metohija Serbs who live south of the river Ibar will have to leave their homes and our most important holy sites – Peć Patriarchate, Dečani, Gračanica, Prizren? Does it mean that the freedom and rights of those could not choose in which people they would be born can be regulated only by territorial partition and creating ethnically compact territories? Obviously that this principle, which, by the way, was the cause of suffering of so many innocent people during the disruption of former Yugoslavia in the 90ies, presents a continual threat to peace and stability, and not only in the Western Balkans. It would create an additional precedent for new separatisms in Europe and all over the world and would encourage a series of bloodsheds, suffering and migrations of civilian population only because, after the deal reached by the politicians, they found themselves on the “wrong side” of the divide.
Therefore as a Bishop, but first of all as a Christian who has lived the most of his life with his clergy, monks and nuns in Kosovo and Metohija, I appeal on politicians both in Belgrade and in Priština, the international mediators in the dialog and other officials that the resolution of all issues in Kosovo and Metohija must and can be sought only with the goal of preserving peace and security for all citizens, especially non-majority ethnic and religious communities, preservation of their religious and cultural heritage, historical identity, human and religious freedoms. Insisting on partition as the “best model” neglects a number of crucially important issues such as: the freedom of return of the displaced people, resolving the issue of the missing persons, protection of property rights, providing adequate health protection and education, religious and human rights which must be guaranteed both on the level of laws but also on the level of the settlement which is achieved.
Such a position of our Church does not mean a call for “a frozen conflict” because our Church has always been against any conflict. This is an appeal primarily on responsible and transparent continuation of the dialog which must be returned within the framework which would be in function of stability of the region and the European continent and fully compatible with all relevant international treaties and standards, among which a particular importance belongs to the UNSCR 1244. Otherwise, as any other land swap or partition in history this one would bring about a massive displacement of the civilian population, destruction of the centuries old spiritual and cultural heritage of our people and would cause irreparable damage to all. We ask a question – Do we need this now in 21st century and who are those who will have historical and moral “courage” to precipitate an exodus and tragedy of dozens of thousands of innocent people who managed to survive at their homes for 20 years after the armed conflict.
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