he gave this interview to NBC warming
rule was 25 years old
mama Newell is one of the few United
States American so-called foreign
terrorist fighters
he’s a person who actually successfully
left the United States to travel to
Syria to join a terrorist organization
what we hear in the West usually call
isis isil daesh so-called Islamic state
he made it their joint organization
receive training and wanted to come back
in October 2014 he contacted the FBI
wrote an email said I want to come back
I need your help well the FBI was still
thinking about what to do with Mohammed
no he eventually made it back on his own
a couple of days later now I don’t have
his story in here today because he
actually made it back very few very very
few individuals make it back after
having successfully traveled to Iraq and
having joined ISIL of course he was
immediately arrested for the trial he
will eventually face about 25 years in
prison
what makes his story so interesting
today is that mama Newell had a very
very bright future ahead of them between
January and May 24 2013
he was actually studying at Columbia
University’s School of General Studies
making him arguably the first and so far
only known Ivy League student who ever
joined ISIL now the Washington Post
reported that more mineral wrote an
essay a student essay praising Franklin
D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill for
fighting against the forces of evil
under Adolf Hitler then that essay more
minou wrote quote I believe I have
greatness in me I want to be a superhero
we in the West
tend to think of violent radicalization
a process that would lead you to making
that decision of leaving everyone behind
joining a terrorist organization and
participating in a civil war that
process must be something pathologic it
must be a disease a sickness that these
persons are not normal they have to be
missing something in their lives they
have to be desperately longing for
something that they would actually make
that step now we also think that if you
have a loving family friends a job
future perspectives education you would
never succumb to an extremist violent
ideology or would you during the last
six years I’ve worked with close to
hundred and fifty families around the
world all of them have been affected by
violent extremist radicalization
processes
mostly so called jihadist radicalization
their sons and daughters and these
families wanted to join ISIL some of
them made it some of them came back and
I helped these families to prevent that
children from going further down the
road help them to return help them to
work with them when they eventually end
up in prison or when they were killed I
helped the families to grieve in short I
helped to deer addict lies their
children I’ve done that with a network
that I’ve helped to create an end of
2014 called mothers for life originally
it started off with four mothers whose
sons had been killed while being foreign
fighters while being active members of
ISIL and these mothers bounded together
today this network includes close to 200
families from 11 countries all of these
families either have lost someone they
loved or they’ve still someone alive who
is in the process of radicalization or D
radicalization now that network provides
help and assistance for these affected
families provides access and contact
points to experts that I train through
my own Institute for the organization
which mothers for lives a project office
called German Institute and
radicalization and davidic ization study
or Gertz which is located in stuttgart
which is very important because it
trains and I do that I trained expert D
reticles ation counselors family
counselors provide family counseling and
advise government’s how to build D
radicalization and family counseling
programs now when we look back on these
years of experience I’ve come to
recognize that there’s something that I
would call a radicalization recipe
that’s very individual it’s individually
mixed but always includes two sets of
factors it includes
negative factors and positive factors
negative are indeed frustration anger
when you lose your job when you have
fights in a family when you experience
racism or bullying in school we don’t
have a perspective or a lack of
education but that does not turn anyone
radical or extremist all of you in this
room have some kind of frustration that
would never make you considering joining
an extremist or terrorist organization
now the second factor set of factors
actually the positive ones our quest for
justice freedom honor dignity pride help
to defend your brothers and sisters in
Syria women and children to turn the
world to be a better place again
everyone in this room has a certain
degree of positive factors we have high
ideals hopes and values grown to live
out these ideals and values now these
two sets of factors there are blinded
together by a radical ideology every
ideology provides you with three things
provides you with a problem definition
it tells you what is wrong in the world
and what is wrong in your life and why
that is connects these two things
second provides you with a solution it
offers you tools to solve the problems
in the world and in your life and
thirdly provides you with a future
vision it gives you a specific goal to
strive for it explains to you why it is
worthy to strive and fight and
eventually die for a certain idea now a
group like ISIL which is a jihadist
terrorist organization
very easy core narrative and ideology
like any other jihadist organization
they think and claim that Islam is
globally under attack by the forces of
evil and disbelief second they say
there’s only one solution to that
problem which is making a stand fighting
back performing the violent jihad as an
individual duty for every true Muslim
and thirdly
they say every jihadist organization
does that the only true future the
vision what we are striving for as true
muslims is to establish and defend the
caliphate the almost mythical perfect
home state for every true Muslim to
protect Muslims to be a new rallying
point for them and I so claims that they
have done that they have succeeded in
establishing the caliphate so when we
look back and take this together its
radicalization recipe the ideology we
can see that it’s not frustration
theology adventure-seeking that
initially opens you up for that ideology
that narrative it is plain and simple
trust it’s plain and simple trust in a
specific recruiter in specific video
picture high glossy magazine that
transports these narratives in a very
specific way and ISIL knows how to do
that they have taken over a handbook a
recruitment handbook that was designed
originally by al-qaeda they just taken
it over and made it more specific which
is very very sophisticated includes a
five-step recruitment process actually
they wouldn’t even mention the term
jihad until the fourth stage because
they know key to reaching out to these
individuals and all around the world is
to gain that trust to build a positive
emotional relationship while of course
not every recruitment process starts
with a human recruiter being present
initially at some point a young adult or
teenager will get in touch will get in
contact with the person
has received that kind of recruiter
training so this trust that actually
someone has recognized the greatness in
you that someone is actually providing
you with the chance the unique
opportunity to be a superhero and to
change the world is what makes Isis so
attractive and other violent extremist
groups luckily for us violent
radicalization process are not a one-way
street they are very dynamic they go
back and forth and together with mothers
for life I work with individuals who in
the academia are called associate
gatekeepers gatekeepers are persons who
already have that trust that ISIL needs
to build up they already have that
relationship that ISIL wants to have so
ISIL is very careful not to step in
between a potential recruits gatekeepers
until their own relationship with that
person is strong enough to play that one
out against the gatekeepers gatekeepers
can be mothers parents family members
brothers sisters colleagues students
friends employers childhood friends
whoever has some form of close
relationship to that person it’s the
trust that exists between you and your
mother the felt when your mother was
caring for you when you were sick the
trust you felt when your father caught
you falling one day all the trust you
felt on you shared your deepest secrets
with your brother sisters or childhood
friends that’s the trust iceless envious
about and it’s the trust they want to
have as well so together with other
parents together with expert counselors
that I’ve trained over the years I am
using that trust I’m working with that
trust to turn around
isil’s own recruitment psychology
against the organization I’m
strengthening and protecting that
specific trust that already exists
between gatekeepers and the potential
recruit now to do that we need to
understand how to empower families how
to empower communities to become what I
call
in counter-narratives by their own
existence by their own by the way they
speak and interact with family members
with their friends with their students
they can completely take the fume take
the fuel out of isil’s narrative or the
narrative of other extremist
organizations like neo-nazi groups for
example we have to realize that mothers
for life Gertz and other programs that
are currently spreading adjust a first
start so what I want to tell you today
is what you can do to help me to help
the mothers for life in that process
first of all do not judge the families
these families are already feeling guilt
and shame they think it’s their fault
many have been blamed that it’s their
fault that their children have gone to
ISIL or other extremist organizations
they are feeling alone massively don’t
they think they are the only ones in the
world this has this burden and they’re
not a thousands of families around the
world who have experienced the exact
same thing so don’t judge the families
don’t actually think that is something
wrong in these families they have no
chance they are standing up against a
massively superior sophisticated and
wealthy terrorist organization that
directly charges or aims their own
psychology into these families and
communities second get involved get out
work in your communities work with your
neighbor your friends your corporations
universities whoever needs to see that
diversity and pluralism actually works
we need to show and build trust mean to
live out that trust to fill that gap
that organizations like ISIL and
neo-nazi groups for example prey on we
need to prove that even to our weakest
community members in diversity lies
strength because if we do that we
suffocate that straw fire that
organizations like ISIL use as a
fertilizer to grow division hate and
anger and frustration and provide that
solution
and thirdly every one of you in this
room today is an associate gatekeeper
every one of you so you have special
relationships trust-based relationships
with many people in your lives one day
you might come across a person here
about a person talk to someone who is
maybe in a process of radicalization who
knows someone else who might be in a
process radicalization not just only
ISIL base maybe a right-wing extremist
group or other extremist groups it’s
your role to use your own trust-based
relationship to trust you get from other
individuals to suggest alternative
solutions to suggest alternative visions
future visions because that is the
unique capability that you as associate
gatekeepers have you can tell these
people that they’re not alone that there
are networks like mothers or life out
there that provide expertise knowledge
understanding and tools to defuse that
radicalization process so what you can
do is spread the word follow our work
and connect us to those individuals who
need that specific expertise and expert
advisement and eventually to D
radicalize their beloved ones so in the
sense is up to you to shut the gate to
extremists and terrorists in our own
communities thank you [Applause]
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