Highlighting Counter Extremism Project Experts


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CEP Spotlight: Liam Duffy

Highlighting Counter Extremism Project Experts

 

(New York, N.Y.) – Following the October 15 murder of U.K. Member of
Parliament David Amess by a man believed to have radical Islamist motivations,
Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Strategic AdvisorLiam Duffy
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The Telegraph about an act of violence that shocked the nation. Duffy is a
recognized expert on extremism and radicalization, and previously delivered the
British government's Prevent Strategy—the prevention strand of its
counterterrorism policy. In addition toThe Telegraph, Liam Duffy has written on
aspects of extremism and terrorism for The Spectator,The Times Educational
Supplement, The Jewish Chronicle, CapX, and UnHerd, among others. Duffy was
previously director of SINCE 9/11, a U.K. educational charity teaching about
the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and their impact and is also a fellow at
the Salzburg Global Seminar.

 

Research and Analysis

 

Western Foreign Fighters and the Yazidi Genocide
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In August 2014, ISIS launched an assault on Sinjar, home to Iraq’s vulnerable
Yazidi religious minority. More than 3,000 Yazidis are thought to have been
killed in the initial assault, many in mass executions, while almost 7,000
Yazidi women and children were kidnapped and enslaved throughout ISIS’s
so-called caliphate. Justice for the crimes has never taken place. In March,
CEP conducted awebinar <[link removed]> to
discuss the Yazidi genocide and launched its new report,Western Foreign
Fighters and the Yazidi Genocide
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, authored by Duffy. Using archived social media activity, interviews with
captured or stranded foreign fighters, and first-hand testimonies from
survivors of ISIS captivity, the report collates evidence of Western foreign
fighters’ extensive involvement in the atrocities committed by ISIS against
Iraq’s marginalized Yazidi minority. The report earned extensive media
coverage, including:The Spectator
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,Le Vie
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,La Libre
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,The National
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, andLa Libre
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.

 

Gradualists to Jihadists – Islamist Narratives in the West
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Individuals and groups adhering to militant Islamism, a political ideology
underpinned by a strict and literalist interpretation of religion, have claimed
tens of thousands of lives around the world. This study, authored by Duffy,
discusses the four main narratives consistently deployed by both “non-violent”
and violent Islamist (Jihadist) movements: (1) Enmity for the West, (2) An
Islamic State, (3) War on Islam, and (4) Communities Under Siege. While
accepting the religious underpinnings of Islamist and Jihadist ideology,
Gradualists to Jihadists – Islamist Narratives in the West
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argues that these narratives are inherently political and that Islamism should
be treated in a policy sense as a political ideology like any other. Duffy also
notes that because the narratives are commonly used by both violent and
non-violent Islamist groups, the language of jihadists has entered the
mainstream and been introduced to much wider audiences than would otherwise be
possible, presenting a radicalization risk. The study’s findings were presented
during a CEPwebinar
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.

 

Op-eds and Selected Media

 

The Telegraph: “We are having the wrong conversations about extremism in
Britain”
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In an October 18 op-ed, Duffy argues against knee-jerk or overly simplistic
responses to the  fact that the attacker of MP David Amess was known to
authorities, cautioning that there is much needing to be learned about the
process of radicalization: “Britain and her allies will face more jihadist
terror in the coming years - that much is for certain - but we cannot hope to
push back until we are more serious about tackling the ideological roots of the
violence, more realistic about how people become radicalised, and more honest
about our existing schemes to reverse it.”

The Spectator: “We shouldn’t forget the horrific crimes of Isis returnees”
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In an October 25 op-ed, Duffy argues that absent thus far in the debate over
the fate of ‘foreign fighters” for ISIS has been the suffering they inflicted
on local populations, specifically the Yazidi people: “Several hundred people
have already returned to Europe and been able to pick up their lives, while the
communities they devastated in Iraq and Syria will not recover for generations,
if at all. Above all, we must not send the message to future extremists that it
is possible to travel overseas to rape, oppress and kill people already less
fortunate, only to return when the going gets tough to little or no sanction.
As a great man once wrote from jail: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.”

 

European Eye on Radicalization: “There is No ‘Good’ Violence in a Democracy”
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In a May 5 op-ed, Duffy argues that political violence is always wrong,
regardless of the perpetrators: “A hierarchy of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ political
violence cannot be allowed to stand. In a democracy there is only political
violence, and it is against the rules of the game. The cause does not matter to
the small business owner whose livelihood has been destroyed, and it certainly
doesn’t matter to the public trust which will disintegrate if institutions are
seen to be hopelessly politicised and indifferent to certain forms of violence.”

 

Express: “Counter-terror expert urges media to stop ‘celebrisiting’ British
ISIS volunteers”
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“Mr Duffy hit out at the ‘celebritisation’ of western ISIS recruits. He
contrasted ‘the plight of the Yazidis and the situation they’re living in now’
with ‘westerners who joined ISIS, who in some cases are living in much more
comfortable conditions than their victims’. Mr Duffy added: ‘I just wish as
much attention was given to the people they tormented as to the tormenters.’”

 

Brinkwire: “Expert debunks the ‘lone wolf’ concept, saying, ‘These guys don’t
function in a vacuum.’”
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“Liam Duffy, advisor at the Counter Extremism Project, has warned the UK is
going in ‘the wrong direction’ to understand how to manage the threat due to a
string of common misconceptions. ‘One of the biggest misconceptions is that
these people are alone, this myth of the lone wolf launching an attack. Most of
the time they are definitely lone actors, but even in the rare instances that
they are radicalised mostly online and self-activated, they still do perceive
themselves to be part of a much broader movement.’”

 

Express: “ISIS returns: Counter terror expert warns flood of Brits joining
group could be repeated”
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“Around 900 British citizens joined ISIS before the group’s self-styled
‘Caliphate’ in Syria and Iraq was crushed. However according to Liam Duffy, a
strategic advisor to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), it would be ‘foolish’
to claim this won’t happen again. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Duffy warned
British nationals could join jihadi extremists in future conflict zones. ‘Every
conflict where Sunni Muslims have been engaged, so that gives Al-Qaeda or ISIS
and jihadist groups the narrative they need to say that Sunni Muslims are being
attacked and oppressed… I think it would be really silly or foolish to say that
can’t happen again and the ISIS phenomenon was just a flash in the pan.’”

 

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