KEY EVENTS 

On November 24, 2020, Dr. Clark McCauley presented Countering Extremist 

Violence (CEV) at the 2020 CASIS West Coast Security Conference. The 

presentation was followed by a group panel for questions and answers. Main 

discussion topics included the distinction between terrorists and extremists; 

extremist violence; the role of Islam in extremism; and deradicalization.  

NATURE OF DISCUSSION 

Presentation 

Dr. McCauley discussed the distinction between terrorists and extremists.  While 

an extremist idea in itself is not inherently problematic, it becomes problematic 

when an extremist idea is combined with violence.  Thus, the discussion of 

extremism should be focused on the violence component, rather than the 

extremist part to avoid diverting attention to the issue of freedom of speech.   

BACKGROUND 

Presentation 

The presentation began with the ethical stance of acts committed by Jihadists. 

While the West refers to these as acts of terrorism, violent Muslim activists are 

defend the attacks as they regard them to be just and sanctified; therefore, violent 

Muslim extremists believe it is the duty of good Muslims to support these actions.   

Dr. McCauley referred to his October 2016 survey and pointed out that polling 

data shows that a lot of people believe that US foreign policy is dictated by Jewish 

interests; 47% of Muslims polled in this study agreed with this kind of Muslim 

grievance and thus sympathize with Jihadist justifications for the use of violence.  

The survey revealed that American Muslims felt they were discriminated against 

COUNTERING EXTREMIST VIOLENCE 

(CEV)  

Date: November 25th, 2020  

Disclaimer: This briefing note contains the 

encapsulation of views presented by the speaker 

and does not exclusively represent the views of the 

Canadian Association for Security and 

Intelligence Studies.        

 



Clark McCauley  Page 136 
 

The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare 
 

 

by US foreign policy in the Middle East.  They believed they were not real 

Americans but Muslims, and if they are Muslims, then they should care about 

Muslims all over the world.  This belief fuels the identification with the Ummah 

(Arabic for community), which registered as a grievance regarding the US 

foreign policy in relation to the Ummah. 

After outlining the origin of Muslim grievances, Dr. McCauley argued that 

violent extremists believe only violence can achieve change, and so a decline in 

sympathy for terrorist grievances could lead to a decline in terrorist attacks. He 

also made the point that having a grievance is not the same as turning to violence.  

Dr. McCauley postulated that the recognition of grievances is the best way to 

fight terrorism as a reduction in terrorist sympathy reduces terrorist attacks.   

Deradicalization is the process of reducing one’s sympathy for terrorist 

grievances.  Instead of writing off or suppressing Muslim grievances, the 

authorities working on deradicalization should focus on recognizing Muslim 

grievances and establishing a common ground to facilitate discussions to resolve 

them.    

KEY POINTS OF DISCUSSION 

• It is important to distinguish between terrorists and extremists. 

• There are two sources of American Muslims perceiving a war on Islam: 

discrimination at home and US foreign policy abroad. 

• Religion was a key component but not the head of burning urge to spread 

Islam and to establish caliphates. It was a desire to protect religion against 

what was commonly seen to be a concentrated war in the Middle East by the 

US government and the military. 

• The process of deradicalizing violent extremists depends on acknowledging, 

or at least recognizing, the grievances Muslims have against Western foreign 

policy in the Middle East as well as perceived discrimination at home. 

• Violent extremists believe only violence can achieve change, and so a decline 

in sympathy for terrorist grievances could lead to a decline in terrorist attacks. 

Acknowledging Muslim grievances is one way to reduce sympathy for 

Muslim terrorists. 

 

 



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 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 
  
© (Clark McCauley, 2021) 
 
  
Published by the Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare and Simon Fraser 

University 
Available from: https://jicw.org/ 

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