Study says persecution of Muslim Americans may drive them to join Daesh
A team of researchers from California and Duke Universities said in a
study publish June 7, 2018, that antagonism against Muslims in the United Sates
may drive them seek out ISIS, aka Daesh.
They found that in communities where people express strong anti-Muslim
sentiment, someone — it’s not clear who — is also making internet searches
about how to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Sociologist Christopher Bail and colleagues wrote in their report:
"Although elected officials routinely promote counterterrorism policies
that target Muslims more than other groups, our findings indicate that these
policies may make communities more vulnerable to radicalization if they are
interpreted as discriminatory or unfair".
They used publicly available data that Google provides as part of its
AdWords service, as well as other search engine data. They also looked for
anti-Muslim sentiments with search terms such as: “Muslims are terrorists,”
“Muslims are bad,” “Muslims are dangerous,” and “Muslims are evil.”
In communities where anti-Muslim searches were common, searches about
joining or supporting ISIS also went up, they found.
Ahmed Kamel El-Beheiry, an expert on terrorism, told THE REFERENCE, that
antagonism against Muslims is not the main reason, citing that the United
States in a liberal country.
"Refugees in some Arab countries are treated harshly,"
El-Beheiry said.
