Page 66 - 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

ment and terrorism which has been manifesting since the 1990s. Specifically, a radical ideol-
3
ogy emerged during this period, based on the recruitment of individuals around the world to
4
fight against the proclaimed enemy, be it home or abroad, to achieve the set goals (cf. Heg-
ghammer, 2011, p 73; Kohlmann, 2004). Al Qaeda was the first global terrorist network under
whose umbrella radicalized individuals began to gather and commit terrorist acts around the
5
world . Subsequently, this problem escalated when the Islamic State was established in the
6

area of Syria and Iraq, with more than 40,000 people from over 120 countries joining the
Islamic State between 2012 and 2017. Even though the method and goal have remained the
same (the recruitment of individuals around the world, the formation of a caliphate), terrorism
7
now manifests itself in a much deadlier, more dangerous and brutal way . Finally, according
to the latest data by the Institute for Economics and Peace (2019), there has been an increase
in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, suggesting that the Taliban became the deadliest terrorist
group in the world during 2018 (Institute for Economics & Peace [IEP], 2019, p 2). Thus, we
currently have a paradoxical situation – although the Islamic State’s caliphate has collapsed in
Iraq and Syria, and the influence of al Qaeda has been completely weakened, there may now
8
be four times as many jihadists as there were in 2001 (Clarke, 2018). This suggests that “the
global jihadist movement is alive and well, even if it is currently more fractured and atomized
than at any point in recent memory” (Ibid., 2018). As a result, the concept of radicalization
as a cause of terrorism is widely used to refer to the process of individuals joining extreme
and violent movements, with an emphasis on the recruitment and mobilization to the cause of
global jihad (Meleagrou-Hitchens and Kaderbhai, 2017 p 13).

3 Daniel Byman has written a book on the global jihadist movement entitled Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the
Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know, which was published in 2015 by Oxford University
Press (Byman, 2015).
4 According to Jason Burke (2009): “In 1987, when Abdullah Azzam, the leading ideologue for modern Sunni
Muslim radical activists, called for al-qaeda al-sulbah (a vanguard of the strong), he envisaged men who, act-
ing independently, would set an example for the rest of the Islamic world and thus galvanize the umma (global
community of believers) against its oppressors” (Burke, 2009). This is actually the essence of the global jihadist
movement ideology and the main reason why it has existed for over 30 years.
5 Foreign terrorist fighters are known to have been in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Thereafter, they par-
ticipated in conflicts in BiH (1992-1995), Somalia (1993-2014), Chechnya (1994-2009), Afghanistan (2001-2014),
and Iraq (2003-2012) (Schmid, 2015, p 3). At the same time, al-Qaeda members carried out individual terrorist
attacks, such as a suicide attack against the US Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 (more than 200 casualties),
the terrorist attack on the United States in 2001 (2977 casualties), the 2002 Bali terrorist attack (202 casualties),
the 2004 Madrid terrorist attack (192 casualties), the 2005 London terrorist attack (52 casualties), the 2015 Paris
terrorist attacks (130 casualties), the Nice terrorist attack (86 victims), and so on (see more: SINCE 9/11, n.d.).
6 According to the United Nations reports, the Islamic State, as part of its overarching aim to build a global Islamic
caliphate (ISIL), has announced the establishment of a number of provinces outside Iraq and the Syrian Arab
Republic (in the Middle East: Libya, Yemen, Egypt-Sinai and Saudi Arabia and beyond: North Caucasus, Alge-
ria, Nigeria and on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border), while more than 50 terrorist groups around the world have
pledged allegiance to ISIL (United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime [UNODC], 2018, p 5).
7 Additionally, the Islamic State has demonstrated capabilities that al-Qaeda never possessed: forming state gov-
ernments in large areas inhabited by millions of people (Bunker and Dilegge, 2016).
8 The total number of jihadists is currently estimated at 230,000 militants spread across approximately 70 coun-
tries, with the lion’s share currently located in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (Clarke, 2018). The number of
them in Europe is not negligible; for example, according to estimates by the European Commission, in France,
the United Kingdom and Germany alone, there are more than 51,000 radicalized individuals who pose a potential
security threat (European Commission, 2018, p 1).

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