Momena Shoma, 24, has been charged with terrorism after an alleged Islamic State-inspired stabbing in Melbourne on February 10. Shoma was invited into Roger Singaravela's home, as part of a home-stay placement for international students before stabbing him in the neck.
The Bangladeshi woman has also been confirmed in a relationship with a militant listed with the terror group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh in 2015, information which was known by Bangladesh authorities prior to the incident.
Ross McNeil, Superintendent for the counter terrorism command in Victoria, Australia has renamed Shoma's lone wolf attack;
"Its called lost dog, its not as sexy, and its probably more accurate.They do tend to be, a little bit, lost souls."
The victim, a nurse, has survived the attack however Singaravela is left to question how a linguistics student welcomed into his Melbourne home could have been radicalised into violent extremism.
Radicalisation leading to violent extremism
Australia, the United Kingdom and Denmark make up just three examples of nations supporting the United States coalition against the terrorist organisation, ISIS.
Terrorism is a complex concept with no universal definition, however the CIA defines it as,
"premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents."
According to a report released by the Global Terrorism Database, 19,000 people were killed in the Middle East and North Africa by terrorist incidents in 2016, 55% of the world's total figure.
Comparatively, Western Europe lost 238 victims, 0.7% overall.
Despite extensive research into the field, analysts consistently disagree over competing narratives of Middle Eastern terrorism. The first is someone who has grown up disenfranchised because of limited socio-economic opportunity, and an inability to create change within the wider political sphere.
Studies have found that subjects had a greater inclination to endorse collective ideas such as terrorism if they had a lower rate of personal success, suggesting that these networks provide a perceived sense of social and economic fulfillment that's currently unattainable in their personal lives.
The alternative is someone who regardless of economic status, carries out violence in the name of religion as a way to directly challenge Western ideological thought.
Some experts have suggested that terrorism could be a defensive reaction against rapid globalization, by attackers who believe that the fundamentalist way of life is facing extinction. But what if it's not just one of these scenarios that’s radicalising the upcoming generation, but a combination of situational, psychological, and political factors?
Coupled with feelings of growing disenfranchisement and resentment, pre-existing psychological influences such as mental illness could also contribute to the formation of extremist beliefs.
A recent study of lone wolf attackers concluded that 40% had identifiable mental health problems, and were using a real or perceived enemy to project blame of their individual injustices onto.
While immigrating to somewhere such as Australia, the United Kingdom, or Europe might increase an individual's socio-economic opportunities in theory, assimilating into a new culture can often intensify feelings of isolation and desire for community acceptance.
How does this evolve into extremism and radicalisation?
Terrorist networks such as the Islamic State often take advantage of the wider political climate to target and recruit disenfranchised Muslim youth.
Exploiting methods of communication such as personal contact or social media, IS project empty promises of a glamorous lifestyle underpinned by an idealistic political purpose, a scenario that can significantly appeal to someone that's frustrated by lack of opportunity.
...radicalisation is really about disenfranchisement to a certain extent. A little bit of an 'us' and ‘them’ mentally... so its that isolation rather than the socio economic, and mental health is a significant issue that’s coming out of recent research that’s telling us that there’s probably a large percentage of people that have some sort of a mental illness aspect that does make them more vulnerable and susceptible to this type of brainwashing through social media that they can get engaged with so the mental health aspect of things is quite significant for us.
Compared to the complex plots of attacks such as 9/11 which involved years of planning and 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers that targeted the economic centre of the United States, groups such as IS have instead focused on inspiring methods of solo terrorism such as the alleged motivations of Shoma.
Superintendent Ross McNeil explores the significant impact social media and community;
Particularly in a current environment we're seeing an awful lot of vulnerable people being drawn to an extremism that can often lead to violence... I say vulnerable people in a sense of people who are less connected to the community than you or I would be. A little bit more withdrawn and being engaged online with people who are overseas or here can actually have an influence people and draw them into an extremist view of the world and often are quite ill informed but again being vulnerable that’s the attraction it becomes a connection that they perhaps don’t have.
The rise of senseless lone wolf attacks in both the West and the Middle East has reconstructed the traditional framework of terrorism as a more simple and accessible method, that's proving increasingly difficult to predict and intercept.
What does this mean for counter-terrorism efforts going forward?
The relationship between the actions of governments and the actions of terrorist networks is complicated, as each one determines the other. For example, when a government retaliates against an organisation after an attack, that same organisation can capitalize on that use of force to further spread their propaganda.
Psychologist Dr. Max Taylor suggests that standard counterterrorism methods "tend to interpret things from our perspective, based on what makes sense to us. That's not really the issue, the issue is what makes sense to people on the ground."
The concept of terrorism will only continue to evolve, and in order for our methods of research and counter-terrorism to simultaneously adapt, understanding the possible situational, psychological and political factors that are underlying the path to radicalisation is key.
What can be done to prevent radicalisation?
...one of the strongest ways coming out of research in Denmark and a number of other places, it's the engagement process. If people do the wrong thing they suffer the consequences and we understand that but we can jump into the process of radicalisation towards extremism much earlier. That preventative approach doesn’t have to be a policing approach, it can be anything the community actually does... its drawing people out of isolation into a community aspect and a belonging. And I think that’s probably one of the strongest tools in the tool box- on a preventative scale. Its to make people feel like they belong and they have an ownership with whats here.
When asked about what every day people can do to contribute to ownership, Superintendent McNeil explained,
Community is really important, ownership. The governor just recently has brought a whole group of women from the Muslim community and they have a garden and grow vegetables and it's not about the garden or the vegetables its about bringing people together. And often as a western society we have lost our neighbourhoods a bit, we’ve become more diverse and mobile and lost our ownership of the street. It’s the simple things, its not rocket science.
Terrorism is a constantly evolving minefield and it misrepresents groups and faiths to the extreme. The Counter-Terrorism Command in Victoria operates within the ethos which Ross McNeil simply put, 'it is about changing people's mind, not resolving a situation.'
