Terrorists plan with, and work with, other terrorists – even if they carry out their attacks alone.
The majority of terrorists meet other terrorists face-to-face. They train together and meet as groups.
Those who don't meet face-to-face do their networking online.
When the media report about an allegedly ‘self-radicalized’ terrorist, such an individual was in fact radicalized by other terrorists. Someone posted the website which instructed him; someone operated the Twitter account which motivated him.
Someone wrote jihadi texts which nudged him toward destructive behavior. The phrase ‘self-radicalized’ is therefore not accurate.
Psychologist Steven Hassan, who studies ‘unethical influence’ and other forms of ‘mind control’ writes:
People are being incorrectly described as “self-radicalized” into becoming terrorists. These folks can be better understood as being on the fringes of a destructive cult – but in the “sphere of influence” of mind control. They are absolutely being recruited – by people in person and online. Cult recruiters are expert at targeting vulnerabilities and activating motivation. Political and religious cults that use terrorist tactics are aggressively recruiting and some people are being sucked into their vortex.
Likewise, the phrase ‘lone wolf’ does not well describe an Islamic terrorist. Far from operating ‘alone,’ these terrorists are under the direction and influence of other terrorists. There are in communication – even if oneway communication – with other terrorists.
Finally, the phrase ‘homegrown’ is not truly applicable to Muslim extremists, even those found in the areas of Mecca and Medina. The ideas which inhabit the mind of such terrorists have a source in time and space.
The words of the Qur’an – the Koran – and the concepts of the Hadith and Sunnah were compiled in various parts of the Near East over several centuries. They are imported into other parts of the world, and into the modern era.
From some source, terrorists learn destructive ideology. From some source, they learn to yell Allah-hu Akbar.
The existence of some such external source shows that this terror is not ‘homegrown.’
These three phrases, then – ‘homegrown,’ ‘lone wolf,’ and ‘self-radicalized’ – are inaccurate, and should not be used when reporting about terrorism.
Terrorism is, to the contrary, imported from the Middle East, imported from other times, necessarily part of a network, and implanted in the mind of a potential terrorist by another terrorist.
