Terror and The War Against Terror: The Convert Phenomenon

In July, Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Shaüble, shocked everybody by stating that his country should consider the targeted assassination of suspected terrorists (that's what I call the Israelisation of western society). He had just met in a convivial way with Michael Chertoff, the US secretary of Homeland security, and felt that he was ready for the mission Chertoff seems to have suggested to him, protecting Germany from imminent terror attacks...

Then in August, Shaüble made headlines again when he suggested that his country might spy on the computers of anyone whom it suspects being involved in terror.

Germans were voicing opposition to such measures when terrorists struck home, just as Chertoff predicted, or were going to strike but were prevented from doing so. More deadly than Madrid and London as it seems... Terrorists in this case, as in every failed attempt since 9/11, were converts ! Labeled Homegrown terrorists, not to be confounded with immigrants which are a far more dangerous breed !

There is one interesting aspect to the phenomenon of converts in terror plots; these are interface people and can be easily manipulated by both sides. They can be manipulated by radical islamists. But they can also be easily manipulated by others who want to prove that Islam is a radical religion. The convert phenomenon is an interesting one and is surely one to understand and follow closely in my opinion because it proves in the first place that true Muslims cannot be easily radicalised and that only newcomers, those who don't understand the religion, are vulnerable to radicalisation. And many people, on both sides, have interest in radicalising 'Muslims'.

Read here the profiles for the Muslim converts of the 2006 transatlantic flight bomb plot between London and the USA.

Read here about the converts of the 2006 failed Toronto plot.

Read the following interview with terror expert Edwin Bakker on the convert phenomenon.

"SPIEGEL ONLINE: In your research, you've pointed out a growing participation of converts in terrorist acts -- so-called homegrown terrorists. Two of the three suspects arrested in Germany on Tuesday are such converts. Where do they enter the equation?

Bakker: In general, whatever their belief, converts are over-achievers; they're overcompensating for the fact that they did not see the light before. So, they tend also to be more susceptible to radical ideas, whether political or religious.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Have you found that there is a trend of people converting directly to Islamism or even jihadism?

Bakker: Yes. If you're not born and raised in a Muslim family where, for instance, your uncle was a scholar or you had contacts with the imam, you only know the basics. You have no critical questions because you don't really have an understanding of Islam. Anyone with a beard and a strong voice and certain symbols can look very convincing. So, with converts and sometimes with people whose parents are not very religions, they are more easily caught by these radical ideas. There's another element, too: a lot of them get their information from the Internet. But if you look at the Islamic literature available on the Internet -- in German or Dutch or Danish -- it's radicals who do all the translation. It's unbelievable."