US security agencies split between Islam-centric and complexity-based radicalization models.

Evidence

The NYPD (as well other local law enforcement agencies) and the FBI advocate stage-based models for radicalization which put Islam at the “front and center of their analysis.” On the other hand, the DHS and NCTC have shied away from this stagist approach, emphasizing the complexity of the process. They have also suggested that while Islam can be used to justify acts of terrorism, radicalization is not caused by Islam. While all sides within the national security establishment agree with the theory of radicalization and the need to apprehend “Muslim terrorists,” they disagree about practical implementation. Here we see a similar dichotomy between the conservative wing of the law enforcement apparatus and what we might call a “realist” wing, similar to that which exists in the foreign policy establishment. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 490 (#expands, via linked claim)

A common feature of the Islamophobia found in both secular liberal and religious conservative circles is the belief that Muslims are prone to “radicalization” more than any other religious group. These conclusions are based on the fallacy that because most terrorism is committed by Muslims globally, Muslims are more likely to commit terrorism. Completely overlooking the political, social, and economic factors causing instability in Muslim-majority countries, such as the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and US support for brutal Muslim dictators, proponents of counter-radicalization focus exclusively on the perpetrators’ religious identities. Whether the logic is that Islam is an illegitimate political ideology, as alleged by the religious conservatives, or that Islam is an illiberal religion in need of reformation, as alleged by the secular liberals, the outcome is the same anti-Muslim racial project: homegrown terrorism. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 946 (#expands, via linked claim)

One of the intended objectives of the racialization process is making the stakes of practicing Islam high in terms of liberty and dignity. The FBI’s counterterrorism mandate, thus, is informed by specious theories of radicalization associating Islamic practices with terrorist tendencies. Praying frequently at mosques, growing a beard, refraining from drinking alcohol, and criticism of the US war in Afghanistan or Iraq triggered FBI suspicion of terroristic plans. Thus, law enforcement attention is directed at Muslims with ideologies the government deems “radical”—the same reasoning that criminalized Black Muslim civil rights activists decades earlier. Only by secularization and assimilation into White Protestant norms, that is, by becoming a model Muslim minority, can a Muslim evade the heavy hand of the security state. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 936 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: US security agencies internally disagree on whether Islam causes terrorism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 600; US counterterrorism agencies divide over whether Islam causes radicalization or merely justifies it — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 490; Routine Muslim religious practices trigger FBI terrorism suspicion under radicalization theory — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 936 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• US counterterrorism agencies divide over whether Islam causes radicalization or merely justifies it #expands (0.95) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 490
• Counter-radicalization conflates perpetrators’ religion with causes of terrorism. #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 946
• Routine Muslim religious practices trigger FBI terrorism suspicion under radicalization theory #exemplifies (0.78) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 936