Two days ahead of the official opening of Montreal’s anti-radicalization centre, there's a new online kit to help people understand the process of dangerous radicalization and prevent it.
It’s a 24-page document available online in French and English and tries to help us all understand what radicalization is, how it occurs and what ordinary citizens can do to stop it.
UQAM professor Jocelyn Belanger, one of the authors, pointed out that radicalization is a normal process that doesn’t always lead to violence.
“Think about the hippie movement in the 70s. People were radical and had marginal, extreme attitudes, yet they were peaceful,” he said, adding the guide tries to differentiate between positive and negative radicalization.
The authors of the document say they made the guide using 50 years of research on extremism that's been boiled down into an easy-to-understand kit. It contains information that all of us should know but especially parents and friends of people who already have shown signs of being marginalized or express extremist views, and teachers who are also on the frontlines, working with marginalized youth.
The document says that in 66 per cent of so-called lone wolf cases, such as the one in St. Jean sur Richelieu in which Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was killed and the Parliament Hill attack that resulted in the death of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, the families and friends of those responsible knew they held extremist views but didn't warn anyone.
Belanger said that research in neuroscience has shown ostracism triggers the pain of the brain that handles physical pain.
“Physical pain, social pain, it’s the same thing. It hurts. … People are trying to find means to assuage their feelings of pain, and they do that through radical organizations,” he said.
In some cases family and friends actually withdrew from them without telling anyone they held these views. And that according to the experts is a mistake.
“You need to keep in touch, make [plans] with that person. Also bring nuance, because they have this ideological mindset that's very black and white. You need to bring nuance to it, to put a doubt in their mind” regarding what they believe, Belanger said.
The kit says that the road to violent extremism is usually a gradual one that has many phases. The new anti-radicalization centre acts as a resource – those worried that someone they know is falling into that way of thinking can alert the centre and they will help them so that police don't need to be called as the first step.
Information Toolkit on Violent Extremism
