On March 31, 2021, CEP hosted a webinar book discussion with Dr. Simon Cottee, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Kent, regarding his recently published study on the jihadist hotspots in the Caribbean.
About the Book: The Caribbean does not immediately come to mind when we think about ISIS. However, in 2017, Trinidad and Tobago ranked first in the list of western countries with the highest rates of foreign-fighter radicalization, with more than 240 nationals traveling to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS’s so-called caliphate.
Dr. Simon Cottee’s book investigates how ISIS came to gain such an unlikely, yet significant foothold in Trinidad. Based on a three-year investigation in the country, featuring interviews with the families and friends of those who left to join the jihad, Muslim activists and community leaders, imams, politicians, and intelligence agents, this book presents the social forces and communities in Trinidad that have been affected by ISIS.
Speaker:
Dr. Simon Cottee is a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Kent (UK), a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a contributing editor at Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. He is the author of Black Flags of the Caribbean: How Trinidad Became an ISIS Hotspot (I. B. Tauris, 2021); ISIS and the Pornography of Violence, (Anthem, 2019); The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Islam (Hurst, 2015; and editor (with Thomas Cushman) of Terror, Iraq and the Left: Christopher Hitchens and his Critics, with an Afterword by Christopher Hitchens (New York University Press. 2008). His academic work has been published in International Affairs, the British Journal of Criminology, the Journal of Human Rights, Terrorism & Political Violence, and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. He is a regular contributor to Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The National Post, Vice, and Trinidad & Tobago Newsday, and serves as a senior advisor on the Investigative Journalism Project, Media Institute of the Caribbean.
Moderated by:
Liam Duffy is a strategic advisor for the Counter Extremism Project based in the United Kingdom. Liam previously delivered the British government's Prevent Strategy – the prevention strand of the overall Counter-Terrorism policy – in London.