When American terrorism expert Malcolm Nance in a CNBC news interview last month named T&T as one of the countries that should be watched for its exports of terrorists, Prime Minister Keith Rowley stated that “Mr Nance’s broad and simplistic statement is not supported by fact.”
There are, in fact, two facts which justify Nance’s naming of T&T: this is the only country in the Western hemisphere where Islamic radicals attempted to overthrow the Government; and Trinidad is among the top ten nations sending fighters to Isis on a per capita basis. (See Table One.)
T&T would indeed have the highest per capita ratio of recruits of any country.
In an article titled Isis In The Caribbean published last December in the Atlantic Magazine, journalist Simon Cottee wrote:
“In a recent paper in the journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, John McCoy and W Andy Knight posit that between 89-125 Trinidadians—or Trinis, to use the standard T&T idiom—have joined Isis. Roodal Moonilal, an opposition Member of Parliament in T&T, insists that the total number is considerably higher, claiming that, according to a leaked security document passed on to him, over 400 have left since 2013.”
Cottee asserted that even the lower number puts T&T at the “top of the list of Western countries with the highest rates of foreign-fighter radicalisation”. This is not necessarily the case, although there is a twist in the estimate. The paper by McCoy and Knight points to “the high rate of religious converts among those travellers” going to join Isis. In fact, the majority of these people are drawn from the Black Muslim community in T&T, who number just over 4,000 according to the 2011 census. On that basis, T&T would indeed have the highest per capita ratio of recruits of any country.
Contrary to popular perception, however, Black Muslims have a long history in Trinidad, having settled here since the mid-19th century and becoming known for forming mutual aid organisations and giving loans to one another to start businesses. More than one hundred years later, in 1973, Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams noted, “It is an indication of the appeal of Islam to certain sections of the black population, the Black Moslems (sic) with their own self-contained community, particularly with emphasis on social work, the rehabilitation of convicts, dope pushers, prostitutes, petty thieves, all sorts of people.”
Groundwork for 1990 coup
Ironically, it is this very tradition of providing social services which may have laid the groundwork for the 1990 coup attempt and, now, radicalisation in that cohort of the Muslim community. This is the argument propounded by American economist Eli Berman in his book Radical, Religious, And Violent. “Regardless of denomination or faith,” Berman writes, “radical religious groups typically share a common organisational design, which makes them magnificent providers of social services through mutual aid”.
Berman uses the label ‘radical’ to mean adherence to a more literalist or extreme branch of a religion, not necessarily violent. He cites data showing that such groups tend to be more cohesive than other kinds of organisations, largely because the stringent requirements to join—ie, giving up all property—weed out people who might be disloyal or not fully committed. The Jamaat al Muslimeen became known for its work among deprived black youths long before the coup attempt. “Social services are not only a source of recruits,” Berman writes, “they also provide leverage over veteran members”.
But this also means that the stereotype of the terrorist is wrong-headed. Economist Alan B Krueger in his book What Makes a Terrorist writes: “Most terrorists are not so desperately poor that they have nothing to live for. Instead, they are people who care so deeply and fervently about a cause that they are willing to die for it”, noting that they tend to be drawn from well-educated, middle-class or high-income families.”
Even suicide bombers, Berman records, “were typically not ignorant or economically deprived (relative to their neighbours) and had generally not suffered the loss of a close friend or family member.” He concludes, “I think it must be that these individuals are altruists—at least in respect to their own communities...the attackers truly believe that their courageous act will bring great benefit to some cause, and that their neighbours, community or country will benefit.”
Seeds for radicalisation
planted in the 1970s
The seeds for radicalisation were also planted in the 1970s after the heyday of the Black Power movement. Military historian and syndicated columnist Gwynne Dyer in Don’t Panic: Isis, Terror and Today’s Middle East writes:
“The first generation of Islamist revolutionaries in the Arab world emerged in the late 1970s in response to the abject failure of the military regimes to keep their promises about delivering economic growth, military might, rising living standards and the defeat of Israel...Islamist ideology argued that the patterns of development that had worked for the infidel West were completely inappropriate for Muslim societies...once everybody had stopped smoking, stopped drinking alcohol, stopped listening to music, stopped the disgusting mixing of the sexes in social and work situations, once the men had stopped trimming their beards, and once everybody was living as true Muslims had done in the time of the Prophet 1,300 years ago—then God would ensure that people in the Muslim countries had the power, prosperity and respect that they longed for.”
This new Islamic ideology in relation to Trinidad’s hedonistic ethos may have also helped solidify radicalised peoples’ desire to leave and join Isis. In a paper titled What Explains the Flow of Foreign Fighters to ISIS?, economists Efraim Benmelech and Esteban F Klor found that the more homogeneous the host country is, the more difficulties Muslim immigrants experience in their process of assimilation. “This social isolation seems to induce radicalisation, increasing the supply of potential recruits,” they write.
Carnival culture in direct
contrast to values of Islamists
Thus, Trinidad’s ‘Carnival culture’ stands in direct contrast to the values of the Islamists and may have made them feel more alienated and hence more open to extremist ideas.
To this mix must be added Trinidad’s position off the coast of South America since, as journalist Stephen Platt points out in his 2014 book Criminal Capital, “Over the past couple decades it has become increasingly obvious that there is a link between Islamic terror networks and the South American cocaine trade...Recent research and intelligence has pointed to growing evidence that terrorists are funded not only from donations and State sponsors, but that they are increasingly turning to drug trafficking, arms trading, currency smuggling, and various types of fraud to generate capital.”
Berman lists six main methods by which terrorist groups get recruits:
• Remove outside options of members by making them unemployable in mainstream society
• Recruit from non-violent base, such as charities
• Provide social services to members
• Fund these services through illegal activities, such as drug trafficking
• Get leverage with politicians
• Create distance between members and the wider culture that they might defect to
Box One summarises the factors which facilitate radicalisation and whether they apply to T&T or not.
Krueger concludes: “What makes a terrorist, then, is the availability of a person with a fanatical commitment to pursuing a grievance combined with the perception that there are few alternatives available other than terrorism for pursuing that grievance, and the availability of a terrorist organisation or cell willing to equip and deploy the would-be terrorist.”
TABLE 1—ISIS FOREIGN RECRUITS FROM 15 SELECTED COUNTRIES
Country Per capita rank Total Fighters Muslim population Recruits ratio
Saudi Arabia 6th 2,500 27 million 2.7 per 1,000
Jordan 14th 2,000 8 million 0.7 per 1,000
France 15th 1,700 5 million 0.5 per 1,000
Tunisia 2nd 6,000 11 million 6 per 1,000
Britain 10th 760 3 million 1.6 per 1,000
Belgium 1st 470 628,000 7 per 1,000
Sweden 5th 300 500,00 3 per 1,000
Austria 8th 300 339,000 2.4 per 1,000
Netherlands 12th 220 1 million 1.4 per 1,000
Maldives 4th 200 393,000 4 per 1,000
T&T 9th 130 65,00 2 per 1,000
Australia 7th 120 476,000 2.4 per 1,000
Norway 13th 81 212,000 1.4 per 1,000
Finland 11th 70 60,000 1.6 per 1,000
Ireland 3rd 30 49,000 6 per 1,000
FACTORS FACILITATING RADICALS
Indicators T&T
Inefficient provision of social services—YES
Restrictions on civil rights—PARTIAL
State subsidies of grievance groups—YES
State subsidies of religion—YES
High fertility within target group—YES
Recruits have higher level education—NO
Recruits have higher incomes—NO
High-income individuals support ideological goals—YES
High-educated individuals support ideological goals—YES
National GDP mid- to high—YES
Homogenous population— NO
Religious schools—YES
These are the elements which the Government must counteract in order to reduce the pool of potential terrorists in T&T.
KEVIN BALDEOSINGH