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Edmontonian Andy Knight's work being used by the United Nations to battle terrorism

What I found out then was that this was an al-Qaida sleeper cell operating under the noses of the Trinidadian government.

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University of Alberta professor of international relations Andy Knight, a speaker at this week’s Edmonton conference titled Ignite Change 2017: A Global Gathering for Human Rights, recently exposed jihadi radicalism in Trinidad and Tobago. His work is now being used by the United Nations to develop a strategy to fight violent extremism.

How did you uncover this hotbed of jihadi radicalism in Trinidad and Tobago?

In 2005, I organized a conference on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that was held in Trinidad, in collaboration with the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies. It was part of a major grant I received from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for a project titled Remapping the Americas. It was at this conference that in a casual conversation with one of Trinidad and Tobago’s leading historians, professor Brinsley Samaroo, I mentioned the work I was doing on the recruitment of child soldiers in civil conflicts across Africa.

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This led to a discussion on recruitment of Trinidadian by al-Qaida, something of which I was totally unaware. Samaroo asked me if I would like to see a jihadi sleeper cell that was operating in Trinidad.

The next day he came to my hotel, showed me on a map where the cell was located. I was surprised to see that its location was quite close to Piarco International Airport. Then, he drove me to the area. And what I saw was a seemingly innocuous gated Muslim community — a commune of sorts with a sentry at the entrance to the roadway leading into the commune. There was a guard in the sentry box who obviously knew Samaroo and, after a few questions, lifted up the bar that crossed the entrance way to allow us to drive inside.

The place seemed very peaceful, with a mosque, a school, a grocery store, and homes that housed what looked like a number of Muslim families. The women wore al-Amira hijab and niqab and the men wore long white thobe. I felt like I was in Qatar, Dubai or Saudi Arabia.

What I found out then was that this was an al-Qaida sleeper cell operating under the noses of the Trinidadian government.

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Seven years later, I was offered the position of director of the Institute of International Relations at The University of the West Indies in Trinidad. The University of Alberta graciously allowed me to take up the position on a secondment — which meant that I was virtually on loan to the UWI.

It was during my secondment that I furthered my research on the rise of extremism in Trinidad and, working with my colleague, John McCoy, explored the reasons why this fun-loving, culturally and religiously diverse country, Trinidad and Tobago, was ripe for the recruitment of some of its mostly young men first into al-Qaida and more recently in ISIS.

What draws people to extremism?

Converting to Islam or being a long standing Muslim in Trinidad and Tobago is not a recipe for embracing extremism. Indeed, most Muslims in T&T are peaceful, successful citizens who just want to practice their faith and do good in their communities. Extremism has nothing to do with the Muslim faith in that country.

What has happened recently is that about 130 Trinidadians have left the country as foreign fighters for the extremist group ISIS. Most of them found their way to Syria and Iraq and joined forces with the extremists who have been misusing the teachings of Islam to justify some of the most horrific crimes against humanity in that area.

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It would appear that the majority of these Trinidadian jihadis are recent converts to Islam. Some have been drawn to ISIS on the promise of financial gain. Some are from the lower economic and social strata in Trinidadian society and see joining ISIS as their way out of a poverty stricken existence. Some have been recruited while they were in prison for petty or serious crimes and see Islam as a way out from that life of crime.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about terrorism?

Terrorism is found in many countries and regions and is not limited to predominantly Muslim countries. Also terrorism can be found amongst believers of different faiths. And some terrorists are not religious at all. For instance, the FARC was a terrorist organization that espoused Marxist-Leninist ideology and considered itself atheist. Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) operating in the Central African Republic and in South Sudan — a declared Christian group — have utilized terrorism as their modus operandi. The Japanese terror group, Aum Shinrikyo, has nothing to do with Islam.

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In fact, we have a whole breed of homegrown terrorists who are not Islamic. We have witnessed the terrorist actions of Anders Breivik in Norway, the terrorism of the NRA in Northern Ireland, the terrorism of separatist movements in France, Spain, Canada, Albania, Sri Lanka — none of whom had anything to do with Islam.

Neo-Nazis like Michael Page, or Dylann Roof, or the white supremacist James Fields who recently plowed his car into anti-racists protesters, killing Heather Heyer, are all terrorists who have nothing to do with Islam or the Muslim community. And we have our homegrown terrorists and would-be terrorists right here in this province.

A United Nations task force will be using your findings to develop a strategy to counter violent extremism. What do you think is the best way to counter violent extremism?

We hope that the UN will use our findings to develop a counter violent extremism strategy that will address the underlying reasons why people, especially young people, are being drawn to violent and extremist ways of addressing their problems. The best way to counter violent extremism is to tackle the root causes of societal violence. Get away from blaming a particular religion or a particular culture. Try to understand why individuals are feeling marginalized from their society, community, family. Why do they feel that violence is the only means to an end? Where is the hate coming from? Where is the anger originating? What can we do to mitigate this problem? How can we help the young to have hope, to be good citizens, to choose love over hate?

cgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

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