CROSS-BORDER TERRORISM
CROSS-BORDER TERRORISM: FOREIGN FIGHTERS AND LOCAL THREATS
Just why do individuals leave the Western world to enlist as ‘foreign fighters’ for extremist organisations in Syria, Iraq and Yemen? Acting to prevent further attacks is key, but so is tackling the problem at its root
Rt Hon. Keith Vaz MP was first elected to Parliament in June 1987 and was the first person of Asian origin to sit in the House of Commons since 1922. He was Britain’s Minister for Europe under Tony Blair, and now serves as the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee. He also chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Yemen.
Terrorism, is an old and well- known means by which groups attempt to achieve their political objectives through violence. However, an interlinked globalisation and localisation of groups such as Al Qaeda and its offshoots, has evolved our understanding of terrorism in recent months and years. This seemingly contradictory process is witnessed in the phenomena of ‘foreign fighters’, individuals who leave their lives in the Western world to join Islamist groups in places like Iraq and Syria.
We are also seeing zones of control being carved into the Middle East by groups like Islamic State. The imposition of a ‘caliphate’ across borders which in recent decades have been under the cast-iron grip of dictators, is a startling development.
These factors, combined with the widespread use of
22 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue One
killed a soldier on ceremonial sentry duty at the Canadian Parliament.
radicalised asylum seeker from Iran, known to the authorities for repeated criminal offences, took 18 people hostage in an Australian café. Two hostages were tragically killed.
Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee
the internet, social media and the ‘dark web’ to promote and disseminate extremist materials is rapidly changing how Western police and intelligence services protect us from terrorist acts.
At home
A distressing series of events has shaken us all in recent months. warped individual shot and
brothers, heavily armed and trained in Yemen by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, stormed the offices of a Parisian satirical magazine, killing 12 people. After the initial attack, the perpetrators and a third assailant committed further acts of terror, ending in two hostage crises. 17 innocent people died in total. In all three cases, the individuals were known to the authorities, they had all read and absorbed extreme Islamist literature and undergone
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