The Cognitive Dimension of Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs)– Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and Hezbollah

October 2019 No Comments

“The Cognitive Dimension of Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs)– Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and Hezbollah”

Speaker: Liebl, V. Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL))

Date: 23 October 2019

Speaker Session Preview

SMA hosted a speaker session presented by Mr. Vern Liebl (Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL)) as a part of its SMA CENTCOM Speaker Series. During his brief, Mr. Liebl compared and contrasted three violent extremist organizations (VEOs)—Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and Hezbollah—in order to understand (from members’ perspective) why they engage in violence. To begin, Mr. Liebl explained that the term VEO has never been clearly defined. This led him to question whether the term actually accurately describes Al Qadea, the Islamic State, and/or Hezbollah and, consequently, to conduct the cognitive exploration that he presented. Mr. Liebl then stated that in such a cognitive exploration, it is much more important to examine how the people in these organizations view themselves and what motivates them to join and stay with the group, as opposed to what outsiders call them and how they see them. He explained that some Muslims believe that Allah is telling them to engage in terror and that it is an act of love to propagate the faith against those who do not believe. He further stated that the way in which Westerners look at VEOs must be revised, as it does not capture the necessary fluidity and structure of what they are calling “VEOs.” Moreover, VEOs are dynamic, learning organizations that each need to be examined in different ways. Mr. Liebl proceeded to discuss several inherent cognitive dimensional themes within the three “VEOs,” including identity, worldview, narrative, education and socialization, acquiring and processing information, ways of thinking and perceiving, and assimilation vs. mobilization. He then assessed whether each of these “VEOs” should be categorized as such and suggested that to pious Muslims, Al Qaeda is not an extremist group; it is merely following the word of Allah. Moreover, the Islamic State, although far more violent than Al Qaeda, can also be perceived as a non-extremist group when examined in the context of the history of Islamic conquest and propagation of religion based on Mohammad’s example. Hezbollah, however, is considered by most Muslims to be an extremist organization; therefore, Mr. Liebl classified it as a VEO, though it is much less violent than Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. To conclude, Mr. Liebl drew a comparison between Muslims choosing to join VEOs and Americans choosing to sign up for military service in December of 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, stating that as some Americans will mobilize for the defense of the US, some Muslims will “mobilize” for the “defense” of Islam.