Incitement

The definitive account of the career and legacy of the most influential Western exponent of violent jihad. Anwar al-Awlaki was, according to one of his followers, “the main man who translated jihad into English.” By the time he was killed by an American drone strike in 2011, he had become a spiritual leader for thousands of extremists, especially in the United States and Britain, where he aimed to make violent Islamism “as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea.” Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens draws on extensive research among al-Awlaki’s former colleagues, friends, and followers, including interviews with convicted terrorists, to explain how he established his network and why his message resonated with disaffected Muslims in the West. A native of New Mexico, al-Awlaki rose to prominence in 2001 as the imam of a Virginia mosque attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers. After leaving for Britain in 2002, he began delivering popular lectures and sermons that were increasingly radical and anti-Western. In 2004 he moved to Yemen, where he eventually joined al-Qaeda and oversaw numerous major international terrorist plots. Through live video broadcasts to Western mosques and universities, YouTube, magazines, and other media, he soon became the world’s foremost English-speaking recruiter for violent Islamism. One measure of his success is that he has been linked to about a quarter of Islamists convicted of terrorism-related offenses in the United States since 2007. Despite the extreme nature of these activities, Meleagrou-Hitchens argues that al-Awlaki’s strategy and tactics are best understood through traditional social-movement theory. With clarity and verve, he shows how violent fundamentalists are born.

Incitement to terrorism connects the dots between evil words and evil deeds. Hate precedes terror. History has already taught us that incitement to genocide and to crimes against humanity unchecked will inevitably bring devastation to humankind. Incitement is an affront to the dignity of its victims, and poses a dire threat to all people of good will. However, combating incitement to terrorism poses operational, constitutional and human rights challenges on many fronts, both domestically and internationally. What is incitement? Where should the line be drawn between protected speech and incitement that should be criminalized? Does war change the calculus of what are appropriate and lawful measures to contain and respond to such incitement? And, perhaps most challenging of all, how does social media and the nature of communication and engagement in today’s virtual world change or complicate how we think about and can respond to incitement?

This book explains why international criminal tribunals struggle to monitor inciting speech, and proposes a model of prevention and punishment.

This book offers a comprehensive study of incitement in its various forms in international law. It discusses the status of incitement to hatred in human rights law and examines its harms and dangers as well as the impact of a prohibition on freedom of speech. The book additionally presents a detailed definition of punishable incitement. In this context, Wibke K. Timmermann argues that incitement should be recognized as the crime of persecution, where it is utilized within a system of persecutory measures by the State or a similarly powerful organization. The book draws on the Nahimana case before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as jurisprudence from German and other courts following World War II to provide support for this proposal. The work moreover provides a comprehensive analysis of public incitement to crimes; solicitation or instigation; and the related modes of liability aiding and abetting and commission through another person. Dedicated exclusively and comprehensively to incitement in its various forms, this book will be of essential use and great interest to students and researchers of international criminal law and human rights law, in addition to practitioners within these areas.

This book critically analyzes the criminalization of incitement to terrorism under the fundamental principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality with the aim of striking a fair balance between security and liberty on this complicated issue. The criminalization of incitement to terrorism has gained momentum, but no exact or generally accepted definition of this offense exists at the international level. What’s more, given that the criminalization of incitement to terrorism results in restrictions on the exercise of citizens’ freedom of expression, there should be certain limitations on those criminal measures to avoid unnecessary or disproportionate infringement of this fundamental human right. Nevertheless, there has not been a precise standard by which to determine how to draw the line between anti-terrorism and the protection of freedom of expression. Hence, it could be concluded that the criminalization of incitement to terrorism concerns how to balance security and liberty, and the safeguarding principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality should be fully observed in considering this issue. This book studies definitions of “incitement”, “terrorism”, and “incitement to terrorism” under the relevant international and national legislation, and points out the existing absence, ambiguousness, or substantive divergence in defining actus reus and mens rea regarding incitement to terrorism. It carefully considers the current need for and essential limitations on criminal measures against incitement to terrorism in accordance with the principles of necessity and proportionality, and particularly focuses on how to balance the protection of freedom of expression with the criminalization of incitement to terrorism. In considering how to draw a line between the two, the book formulates precise requirements for objective and subjective elements of this offense in accordance with the principle of legality. Given its scope, it will be of interest not only to academics, human rights lawyers and practitioners, but also to policymakers, as it offers an extensive evaluation of the effects and counter-effects of existing criminal measures.

Provides an explanatory framework for the challenges facing the development of the international norm prohibiting hate speech.

In reaction to Ahmadinejad's statement that "Israel should be wiped off the map", calls on the international community to heed the early warning signs of genocide and act to prevent it. Examines the various mechanisms available under international law and the national laws of a number of countries, focusing on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide which came into force in January 1951.

This publication contains guidance on the different legal approaches adopted by the Council of Europe's member states in relation to the phenomenon of the public expression of praise, justification and other forms of support for terrorism and terrorists, referred to as "apologie du terrorisme" or "incitement to terrorism".