A speaker addressing the subjects of extremists and terrorism at a regional police conference last week says the Cayman Islands is relatively safe from such activity.
Speaking at the 34th meeting of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, a week-long symposium hosted at the Marriott Beach Resort, Mirza Ali-Mohammed outlined the factors that can encourage extremist behaviour and what kinds of things can be done to prevent it. Ali-Mohammed is a consultant with Caribbean Training and Development in Trinidad and Tobago.
A current global concern, he said, is the immigration of people with extremist ideas from one region to another. “We haven’t seen too much of that yet,” he said, referring to the Caribbean nations.
Of more concern, he said, are homegrown terrorists.
“Radicalisation can happen on the internet in the privacy of your bedroom,” Ali-Mohammed said.
He cautioned against the common tendency to associate such behaviour with religion, particularly with Islam. While some extremist groups align themselves with a religious ideology, he said, religion is not the root cause.
“Radicalism and extremism is a social issue,” he said.
People are attracted to extreme ideologies by such factors as poverty, poor education, high unemployment and a feeling of being disenfranchised.
“Local radicalisation is something real and something we have to look at,” he said. “You have to be proactive.”
Such action in Cayman may be less urgent than in other places, he added. While some of the precipitating factors may exist here, he said, they are not at crisis levels.
“Cayman seems to be insulated from some of that [influence],” he said.
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