We need to empathise with those we fundamentally disagree with. Is society ready for that?
Practitioners in the UK’s countering violent extremism strategy, Prevent, approach extremism with an agnosticism that adapts to local threats, including radical right extremism. We recognise that it appeals to people for a broad range of social and psychological reasons and so grappling with the ideology alone is insufficient.
Fractures of identity and a diminished sense of belonging are common. We have seen family bereavements drive people into the arms of a surrogate ‘family’ of extremists who seize an opportunity to exploit their grief. Some feel they are victims of an unjust system and seek solace in online ecosystems which draw them into perpetuating cycles of conspiracy and mistrust. We see deeply personal grievances framed as part of an existential struggle against an ‘other’.
Theirs is a world of discord in which an unholy trinity of politicians, police and media are colluding to suppress dissent and control the masses. A world in which Jews are the financiers of this corrupt elite and the public are dispossessed of a voice to challenge the establishment. The perception that nobody listens and nobody understands is disempowering; when you believe that ‘others’ are responsible for disadvantaging you or your communities, then groups that sow division and divide the world into ‘us and them’ are an opiate.
Safeguarding
The majority of people we support through Prevent are not yet fully immersed in ideology, but testing its waters. This means that early intervention (‘safeguarding’) for the underlying factors is the most compelling way of helping them navigate the path of radicalisation. Tackling the issues early is effective in helping a person blend their binary, black-and-white thinking into the shades of grey that more accurately reflect the nuanced and ambiguous world around them, deligitimising violence towards an outgroup. The support we offer is voluntary and provided through statutory bodies or wraparound care within the person’s family. Sometimes it will be an NGO or charity that is best-placed to provide that social care response, similar to longstanding safeguarding work in the field of gangs and drugs.
For the more serious cases, and those where the ideology has become integral to a person’s identity, a mentor will be used. These relationships can be profound and will involve a combination of traditional counselling and expertise from former extremists.
The reason Prevent’s approach is successful – some 80% of cases exit the process with no further extremism concerns – is because it’s built on a consensual and trusted relationship with the individual. It is not about rejecting their world view but understanding it and empathising with its genesis. The conversations can be uncomfortable and challenging, but without honesty and empathy a person can feel judged or rejected by the mainstream and risks being driven back into the comfort of an extremist movement.
Bullying
But radicalisation does not happen in a vacuum. External factors continuously obfuscate the environment, reinforcing stereotypes or promoting an adversarial discourse that undermines empathy. Social media has made virtues of tribalism and outrage, where winning an argument is more important than finding common ground. If success is measured by your ability to denigrate others and bully them into silence, what values are we handing down to subsequent generations?
Sara Khan, the UK’s Commissioner for Countering Extremism, stated that we need a whole society approach to solve this problem. I absolutely agree, but to do this requires us all to have those honest and difficult conversations and to empathise with those we fundamentally disagree with, and I’m not convinced society is ready for that.
Prevent can work with individuals to thwart the radicalisation process and it can promote initiatives to inoculate against extremism (instilling values of tolerance, respect and equality) but it’s not a panacea. We need our politicians to earn the trust of a significant cross-section of the electorate who feel forgotten, ignored and disinvested in society, we need the media to strike the difficult balance between platforming an ideology and shining a light on its hypocrisies with robust alternative narratives and we need social media companies to redesign the algorithms that amplify and perpetuate enmity.
Our Jewish and Muslim communities have become a lightening rod for radical right hostility. If we cannot move from the fringes of caustic discourse to a reasoned and pragmatic centre ground, and if we continue to allow anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim prejudice to go unchecked and unchallenged, we are doomed to fail and the ramifications for these communities will continue to be mired in tragedy.
Mr William Baldet is a Policy and Practitioner Fellow at CARR and a Countering Violent Extremism practitioner. His profile can be found here:
© William Baldet. Views expressed on this website are individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect that of the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR). We are pleased to share previously unpublished materials with the community under creative commons license 4.0 (Attribution-NoDerivatives).
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