Acts of mass-scale indiscriminate violence and terrorist outfits such as the Islamic State (IS) are largely characterised by a seemingly limitless desire to kill, destroy, and spread terror.
Yet within such movements, there is often entrenched disagreement about the extent, scope, and nature of the violence that can and should be employed.
This report explores communication among individuals involved in an informal social network who were seeking to plan attacks in the UK, for which they were convicted in 2016.
While this group was actively supporting and participating in dedicated attack planning involving targets in the London area, members nonetheless expressed some doubts about their participation in political violence and some of the expressions of violent Islamism that they had witnessed.
This case study also considers the approach of al-Muhajiroun, a radical Islamist collective set up by Omar Bakri Mohammed which existed in different guises between 1996 and 2016, when key members were convicted for promoting terrorism.
It is an especially intriguing example, in relation to our internal brakes study, since it demonstrates how different types of internal brakes, that appeared to be in place, were gradually removed.
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IMAGE CREDITS: Copyright ©2024 R. Stevens / CREST (CC BY-SA 4.0)