The Australian government has sponsored a guide to undermine violent extremist narratives in south-east Asia that identifies Islamophobia and western military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as “push” factors to extremism.
The guide proposes strategies to prevent radicalisation by undermining the factual and religious bases for calls to extremism.
The Australian justice minister, Michael Keenan, announced the release of the guide on Tuesday at the 14th annual national security summit in Canberra.
Keenan, who is also the minister assisting the prime minister on counter-terrorism, confirmed the government would introduce a bill next month to establish a scheme to keep high-risk terrorist offenders in jail indefinitely.
The counter-terrorism guide was produced by the Hedayah Institute, an independent, multilateral centre devoted to countering violent extremism.
It suggests people are radicalised when they are convinced there are injustices to which violence is the only effective response.
The guide notes a number of socioeconomic factors and grievances of extremists in south-east Asia, including poverty, hate speech, Islamophobia, feelings of victimhood related to suffering of Muslims outside the region, lack of education and “military operations by Western governments in Afghanistan and Iraq”.
Pull factors for terrorism are more individual and emotional, it says, and include ideas of achieving a “pure Islam”, a sense of adventure and “idealisation of former fighters from Afghanistan and other conflicts”.
The guide suggests using religious texts and leaders to refute the claims of Islamic extremists. For example, scholars should reinforce the concept of jihad as an internal struggle, not a physical or violent one, and emphasise that Islam is inclusive of all ethnicities.
Particular weaknesses in extremist ideology include the number of Sunni Muslims the organisation kills and the hypocrisy of its violence, the guide says.
Other strategies include rebutting factually incorrect claims and even “poking fun at [extremists’] objectives, aims, tactics or beliefs”.
The guide recommends identifying the best messenger to counter radicalisation.
Former terrorists and fighters have the “street credibility” to effectively contradict the emotional or psychological appeal of extremism, the guide says. It cited an interview with a former Isis member from Indonesia, which it said demonstrated the corruption within the group.
The families of potential extremists are highly persuasive, as are victims and survivors including mothers of violent extremists or mothers of victims of terrorism, it says.
The guide warns that individuals may travel to Iraq and Syria to join groups such as Isis and al-Qaida and return to carry out attacks in south-east Asia, or may conduct lone wolf attacks locally.
Keenan said at least 500 people, and possibly more than 800, had travelled from south-east Asian countries to fight in Syria and Iraq.
He said the guide was sponsored and supported by the Australian government and was a first of its kind for the south-east Asian region.
Keenan warned that since the declaration of the Islamic State “caliphate” in June 2014, terrorist attacks had spiked worldwide.
“In the last two years alone, we have seen three attacks and 10 major disruption operations in relation to imminent attack planning in Australia. This compares to no attacks and four disruptions in the preceding decade.”
Keenan said Australia’s counter-terrorism approach was pre-emptive because “preventing a terrorist incident and saving lives must have precedence over gathering the evidence necessary for a prosecution”.
He said the government would introduce two bills, including the preventive detention bill, as part of the “constant review” to ensure agencies had powers to deal with terrorist threats.
Keenan described radicalisation to the point of violence as “an incredibly complex issue”.
“Terrorist propaganda affects each individual’s state of mind, their thoughts and emotions differently. There is no single pathway to radicalisation.”
He said the government had “developed intervention programs to help those on the wrong path before security or law enforcement responses are needed”.
Keenan said the guide provided guidance for governments and civil society organisations to support development of effective counter-narratives that undercut the appeal of terrorist propaganda.
