Knowing and countering Islamic radicalism: geopolitical and criminological profile and related good practices to combat it

Abstract

In order to assess the complex phenomenon of terrorism, it is necessary to start off by clarifying the terminologies used in the field. For instance, the Occidental terms used to define the most extreme Islamic movements can end up being deviant and imprecise for the ones operating in the field. As a consequence, the Occidental mass media took inspirations from already known terms such as "fundamentalism"; a word much used in the past decades to refer to other religious movements (i.e., catholic fundamentalism, protestant fundamentalism, etc.) and "recycled" to describe the said above Islamic extremism. Nevertheless, there is no agreed in literature upon this topic; the word "radicalism" seems to have the biggest success because it is the one that is most suitable to the way of thinking of the said above movements, the ones that want to go back to their origins. Experts of the Islamic world describe the radicalization as “a process through which a system of extremist values is adopted". Although we have different definitions of the radicalization transition, as it happens in case of a terrorist, we don't have an international definition. In fact, for the experts, it can be really difficult to give a unique definition and assess the motivations that can lead a person to the extremist way of thinking.