Counter Cultures, Group Dynamics and Religious Terrorism

Abstract

Totalistic ideologies are breeding grounds for radicalization. Communities that adhere to such ideologies tend to rally when they feel threatened by powerful outsiders. Under such circumstances, community leaders become central. If they frame the situation as an existential threat to the community itself or to its most sacred values, they will accelerate the radicalization process and subsequently increase the prospects of violent actions by group members. The shift to violence takes place in the framework of close-knit social networks within the broader radicalized community. These networks consist of individuals who usually live in the same area and engage in continuous interaction among themselves. Such interactions bolster their communal commitment and develop a collective mindset that facilitates the slide of some of the individuals into violence. Those who eventually descend into terrorism usually exhibit strong identification with the community's values and extreme alienation towards the outside world. They also enjoy high levels of biographical availability. These hypotheses are tested using the case study of Jewish terrorism in Israel between 1948 and 2006.

Comparative Framework for Understanding Jewish and Christian Violent Fundamentalism

“…As pointed out by Perliger and Pedahzur [15], most of the violence that was produced by members of the Religious-Zionist movement was in response to two types of pressure: (a) an escalation in the security situation in the West Bank, and especially an increase in Palestinian violence against the settler population (i.e., the first and the second Palestinian uprisings, also known as Intifadas); (b) peace initiatives which might potentially lead to Israeli territorial concessions. In both cases the settlers' leaders were concerned that the violence/peace processes, would pressure Israel to make territorial concessions to the Palestinians, hence diverting Israel from the path of implementing its sovereignty over the "Greater Land of Israel", which is a core element of the Religious-Zionist theology, as explained above.…”

“…As a consequence, any attempt to backtrack this process, for example by conceding lands to the Palestinians in the West Bank, is seen by them as a direct violation of God's will and should be prevented. Almost 50 years after the 1967 war, this vision has become dominant in the Religious-Zionist community, which comprises the decisive majority of the settler population and is today almost entirely ideologically homogenous [15].…”

“…51-52, 141-43). Similarly, the emergence of the Bat-Ayin group, which was engaged in a violent campaign of ambushing Palestinian vehicles and which was eventually exposed after a failed attempt to place an improvised bomb at the entrance to a Palestinian school, is attributed to the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising [15]. Lastly, the assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin in 1995, by Yigal Amir (who had his own supporting network), was a direct result of Rabin's attempt to push forward the Oslo Peace process, and his willingness to promote territorial concessions ( [12], pp.…”

“…To begin with, unlike other ideological movements, a significant number of the Religious-Zionists, as well as members of the Identity movement, reside and spend time together in isolated spaces, where they are consistently exposed to a single ideological perspective, and can easily share and interact (just) with people who have similar views. As Perliger and Pedahzur [15] demonstrated, most members of the Religious-Zionist violent groups resided in ideological settlements in the West Bank. In the same manner, most of the more radical members of the identity movement spend time in compounds such as the one which was established by Richard Butler, AN's founder, near Hayden Lake, Idaho.…”

On the Risk Assessment of Terrorist Attacks Coupled with Multi-Source Factors

“…According to the statistics of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), 1078 terrorist attacks occurred in Southeast Asia in 2016 alone, resulting in 533 deaths and causing great panic within the society. A large number of scholars at home and abroad have made great efforts to solve various problems related to the threat of terrorism [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, the risk assessment of terrorist attacks remains a complex and uncertain problem.…”