The recent bombings in Europe are being perpetrated by a new generation of terrorists who are upending our previous understanding of what motivates such people and how to find and stop them. Today’s terrorists are not religious extremists who became radicals but rather radicals who became religious extremists. The difference is crucial.
Fareed Zakaria (Washington Post)Brussels attacks: last gasp of Isis terror in Europe, or sign of growing threat?
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How did Belgium live last week – and how will it live the aftermath of 22 March ?
Emma Graham-Harrison (The Guardian)Understanding terrorism is the only way to defeat it
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The terrorist attacks in Brussels, where at least 31 people were killed earlier this week, has forced us once again to comprehend the almost incomprehensible. Why do people turn their backs on the relative comfort of their lives to join the brutal organisation that is Islamic State and commit terrorist offences and mass murder?
(The Australian)New ISIS recruits have deep criminal roots
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European officials say the perpetrators in the most recent attacks appear to be part of a new wave of recruits that are not “radical Islamists†but rather “Islamized radicals†— people from society’s outer margins who feel at home with a terrorist organization noted for beheading hostages and executing unarmed civilians.
Joby Warrick, Gregg Miller (Washington Post)It is no surprise siblings with past crimes carried out attacks on Brussels
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The el-Bakraoui brothers highlight the links between terrorism and criminal records, and the strength of family in Islamic militancy.
Jason Burke (The Guardian)Brussels terrorist attacks: why the heart of Europe?
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Brussels is home to an increasing number of angry and alienated young men who feel they are not treated as equal citizens and have no future.
David Wroe (Brisbane Times)Jihadi Cool: Belgium’s New Extremists are as Shallow as They are Deadly
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These European attackers are not like the Al-Qaeda members of old—the radicalized adherents to fundamentalist Islam. Many of these new age killers were small children when the World Trade Center fell in 2001 and have spent much of their lives watching major wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Syria.
Kurt Eichenwald (Newsweek)Facing the fourth foreign fighters wave. What drives Europeans to Syria, and to Islamic state?
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Thousands of young Europeans have gone to fight in the Levant, the fourth wave of jihadi foreign fighters since the 1980s. Their decision is rooted in a “no future” subculture and boosted by the conviction that by traveling to Syria they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Rik Coolsaet (Egmont Paper)