An Inquiry into Youth Innovativeness in Radicalization and Extremism: The Case of the Recent Manchester City Bombing and Al-Shabaab Activity in Kenya

Abstract

The fulcrum of this paper is the May 22, 2017Manchester City bombing. The paper seeks to highlight how the youth can become indoctrinated into extremism. It inquires into why some people go through the terrorism indoctrination cycle yet not progress to the critical point of carrying out terror acts.Whereas several scholars have challenged the whole radicalization discourse, their basis is on the vulnerability of people to extremism in Western countries, which this paper finds inadequate, as it does not address the root cause of the problem. The results of data analysis on the terror groups al-Shabaab and Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) has shown that the majority of youth joining the two terror groups do so at an early age ranging between 16 to 20 years of age and lack a good education. The Countering the Lone-Actor Terrorism (CLAT) project results has shown a relationship between mental health and terror acts. The point of concern in this paper is therefore, youth without a good education, who have first-hand exposure to violence indoctrination and or with mental health problems would be easier to radicalize to the point of carrying out acts of terrorism and extremism. Key words: Terrorism, jihadist, extremism, depression, alienation, bombings.