Australians who fight with Islamic State might have more in common with a pub brawler than the average Muslim, an expert in violent extremism has said.
As the government prepares to meet civil society groups this week to forge a strategy to fight Isis propaganda, Curtin University associate professor Anne Aly said on Tuesday there was a need to “revisit” the popular understanding of radicalisation.
Aly told the Lowy Institute that having a radical world view and actually committing violence had become conflated, and it was “not always the case” that one led to the other. “There are people who adopt those views and ideologies and continue on the path of peace,” she said.
Nor was it clear that everyone who went to fight alongside Isis and other militia in Iraq and Syria was necessarily “radicalised”, in the sense that their violent acts were rooted in ideological extremism.
Instead, Aly said a propensity towards violence or aggression had emerged from her research as a “key personal trait” in many of the Australians who had joined or killed on behalf of Isis, including Melbourne teenager Jake Bilardi and Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis.
According to a manifesto Bilardi published, revealed by Guardian Australia in March, the suicide bomber had decided a “violent global revolution was necessary” years before he converted to Islam. Aly said this indicated he was attracted to violent action, which he merely dressed in Islamic motifs.
She said it was “futile and impossible” to create a profile of an individual vulnerable to radicalisation. Colloquial theories that it was driven by grievances over western foreign policy, or else some tendency inherent in Islam, failed to explain why of all Muslims or critics of the west, “only a minority ever become violent”.
Up to 100 Australians are thought to be fighting with militia groups in the Middle East, and about 30 are known to have been killed. More than 150 people in Australia are believed to be providing direct support to fighters in the conflict.
Representatives from more than 30 governments will join civil society groups in Sydney on Thursday and Friday for a regional summit on countering violent extremism. Among its themes will be crafting a counter-narrative to challenge Isis propaganda and recruitment.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, will address the delegates, as well as the head of Asio, Duncan Lewis, and Ahmed Fahour, the chief executive of Australia Post.
