'Criminals joining ISIS for redemption through gangster jihad'

Young men looking for redemption from crime, drugs or gangs by waging 'jihad' are the new targets for the ISIS terror group in Europe, a new report co-authored by an Indian-origin researcher said today.
"In many European countries, the majority of jihadist foreign fighters are former criminals," the report titled 'Criminal Pasts, Terrorist Futures: European Jihadists and the New Crime-Terror Nexus' said.
It has been co-authored by Indian-origin senior researcher Rajan Basra for the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at King's College London.
"The profiles and pathways in our database suggest that the jihadist narrative - as articulated by the Islamic State (ISIS) - is surprisingly well-aligned with the personal needs and desires of criminals, and that it can be used to condone as well as curtail the continued involvement in crime," it adds.

The emergence of the ISIS has strengthened the link between crime and terrorism and the dreaded group is increasingly turning to "ghettos", prisons and "underclasses" to recruit individuals with a history of criminal behaviour, according to the report which examined the profiles of European jihadists recruited since 2011.
The researchers, including Peter R Neumann and Claudia Brunner, also found that jihadists not only condone the use of "ordinary" criminality to raise funds, they have argued that doing so is the ideologically correct way of waging "jihad" in the "lands of war".

The report profiles 79 European "jihadis" who progressed from petty or violent crime to hardened jihadism on the European continent or the Middle East.

It finds that criminal and extremist groups recruit from the same social pools, resulting in the transfer of skills and an environment that suit those susceptible to violence and experienced at averting law enforcement agencies.
Co-author and ICSR director Neumann also highlighted that many security services still expect radicalised young men to change their behaviour and act "religiously", perhaps by growing a beard or changing their clothing.
For some the pattern is still seen, but in many cases it is not, with several European fighters in the ICSR's database continuing to smoke, drink and even take drugs up until their departure for the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).

Of the "jihadis" examined for the study, two-thirds had not just a criminal history but a violent history, the report said, adding prisons will become "breeding grounds" for jihadist groups as they provide a ready supply of "angry young men" who are "ripe" for radicalisation.
"It gives criminals a moral justification for doing what they have always been doing - only now they will go to heaven," Neumann said.
ISIS aims to portray membership as a route to action, adventure, power and the sense of brotherhood desired by frequently vulnerable recruits searching for purpose and belonging.