Page 30 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

SECTION I: EXTREMISM, RADICALIZATION AND CYBER THREATS AS AN IMPORTANT
SECURITY FACTORS FOR COUNTERING TERRORISM PROCESSES

controlled environment that can be used to create successful deradicalization programmes, so
we can re-integrate FF into society.

2.4 Programmes of De-Radicalization of Foreign Fighters

As countries have adopted stronger measures towards returning foreign fighters, some have
used softer measures alone, or used these soft measures in combination with other methods
of dealing with returning foreign fighters. These soft measures are mostly deradicalization
programmes or reintegration of foreign fighters into society. Programmes of deradicalization
are based on the principle of helping returning foreign fighters not to return to the terrorist
organization. When going back to their own countries foreign fighters are faced with lots
of challenges. Aside from the obvious ones, such as facing possible legal punishment and
criminal prosecution, these challenges include meeting their families, friends, fellow citizens,
and larger community once again. But in spite of this, there are potential ways to make their
return easier. One of these ways is deradicalization; almost a necessary first step so that the
foreign fighter can return to society. “De-radicalization is aimed at radicalized individuals. It
is based on the assumption that not everyone who becomes radicalized remains committed to
their cause, and that every extremist movement has disillusioned followers who have doubts,
or simply want out” (Neumann, 2017, p 20). However, it is a fact that deradicalization lacks a
pure definition and that there is no consensus on what constitutes successful deradicalization.
Academics and practitioners use the terms deradicalization and rehabilitation interchangeably
to refer to a cognitive disassociation from violent group identity and ideology. Reintegration
refers to the re-establishment of social, familial, and community ties, and positive participa-
tion in society.

Developing successful reintegration programmes is crucial, not only to preventing recidivism
among returnees, but also to mitigating further radicalization among the youth population
and building overall community-level resilience to violent extremism (Holmer and Shtuni,
2017, p 2). Successful deradicalization programmes result in a change in beliefs and attitudes
which lead to people no longer posing any danger to the society that they are returning to. It
is possible that people stay with the same beliefs, even if they leave foreign territory; so, in
deradicalization, it is not crucial not only to change behaviour, but also to change the deep
beliefs of the person. Even those who serve prison punishment can walk out with the same or
an even larger degree of radicalization. “Deradicalization means programmes that are gener-
ally directed against people that have become radicalized, with the aim of their reintegration
into society or at least of deterring them from violence. Deradicalization is not a process that
can be carried out alone by security personnel, but it is necessary that the whole community is
involved” (Ogrizović, 2018, e-source). Further, “rehabilitation is defined here as ‘a purpose-
ful, planned intervention, which aims to change the characteristics of the offender (attitudes,
cognitive skills and processes, personality or mental health, and social, educational or voca-
tional skills) that are believed to be the cause of the individual’s criminal behaviour, with the
intention of reducing the chance that the individual will re-offend”.

Reintegration is defined as ‘a safe transition to the community, by which the individual pro-
ceeds to live a law-abiding life following his or her release and acquires attitudes and behav-
iours that generally lead to a productive functioning in society” (Heide and Geenen, 2017, p
8). Successful deradicalization must be carried out by teams of experts, and it is necessary for
it to contain one of the following measures: “Well-articulated and inspiring counter-messag-
ing, which effectively undermines extremist narratives, can prove powerful when prompting

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