Canadas decision to prosecute a February attack by a machete-wielding Involuntary Celibate (Incel) as a terrorist act has fed an ongoing debate about whether Incels are terrorists, and if the community demands a dedicated national security effort.
On
February 24, 2020, a Canadian teenager stabbed a female owner of an erotic
massage parlour in Toronto. Identified by police as an ‘Incel’ – short for
Involuntary Celibate – he was accused of being motivated by a misogynist
ideology and later charged with terrorism. He was the first Incel to be
prosecuted as a terrorist. Since 2009, Incels have committed at least 16
attacks, mostly in North America and Europe, often in the form of
indiscriminate violence against members of the public. In the first half of
2020 alone there have been four attacks.
Incels
justify their acts of violence as revenge against women or society in response
to their inability to have sex or enter into a relationship with women. They
see themselves as having more inferior genes, and are angry at women who prefer
men they describe as “Chads” (men who are ‘sexually successful’). Whilst the
movement remains generally non-violent and confined to online chat forums, a
more militant community has emerged recently that encourages the expression of
their frustrations in lethal ways.
Incels
and Terrorism
There
are myriad definitions of terrorism. What draws most of them together is the
use of violence against non-combatants in advance of a political goal, usually
by a non-state group.
One of
the biggest hurdles therefore in including Incels within the roster of
terrorist organisations is the absence of a clear political goal, beyond a
revenge for their personal rejection by the opposite sex. Some Incels discuss
an imagined historical world in which women were more subservient to men and
hearken back to it, but there does not appear to be a concerted strategy to
achieve such a goal.
There
are elements within the Incel community, however, that mimic traditional
terrorist modus operandi. The self-directed attacks, use of social media to
network and radicalise, and the employment of non-sophisticated weapons, are
all tactics that resemble broader trends in contemporary terrorism.
By
posting pre-attack manifestos or intent to start an “Incel rebellion”, some
Incel attackers resemble traditional terrorists as they appear to have a wider
goal, seek recognition, presence and broader meaning to their act. These texts
are for the most part confused, however, and do not appear to articulate a very
coherent broader worldview and plan.
Ideological
Convergence with Extreme Right-Wing
Moreover,
the Incel ideology converges with the broader range of ideologies which
characterise the extreme right-wing today. Strands of white supremacy,
misogyny, anti-government sentiments and racism are weaved into Incel
narratives.
Elliot
Rodger, the first Incel attacker, was vehemently against interracial
relationships and partially attributed his inability to get a girl to
competition from other races. Tobias Rathjen, the Hanau shooter in Germany,
launched his acts of terror in the name of anti-immigrant feeling, but there
were clear strains of Incel thinking in his manifesto.
Taken
alongside the many other extreme right narratives that have emerged in the past
few years – from the militant North American Boogaloo Bois to the increasingly
global QAnon movement (which the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
regards as a potential terror threat) – it is possible that Incels should
potentially be defined as simply another articulation of the modern extreme
right, where misogynistic ideologies are rampant.
This
definition places Incels within a frame which is relevant to national security
actors, reflecting them as part of the confusing new expressions of terrorism
focused around lone actor violence which have increasingly taken centre stage
around the world.
Relevance
for Asia: Currycels or Ricecels?
The
correlation between Incel and the extreme right-wing throws a spanner in the
works when trying to establish their relevance in Asia. Given that the extreme
right-wing is still mostly a white supremacist movement which therefore
resonates in areas of white majority populations, outside New Zealand or Australia,
the nexus is less salient in Asia.
But it
is worth noting that there are many Incels who are also non-white. Rodger
himself was of a mixed-race descent, but considered himself to be descended
from “British aristocracy,” placing him as part of (what he considered) a
superior race. Pure Asians, especially the diaspora community found in Western
countries, also embrace their own interpretations of Inceldom, dubbing
themselves “currycels” or “ricecels” depending on their ethnic origin.
Incels
are in part a reaction by young male populations of the perceived feminisation
of society and their relative weakening. While admittedly a generalisation,
Asian societies tend to be dominated by an uncontested patriarchy, where
misogyny (and its associated violence) is not uncommon. The growing women’s
rights movement may provide the same impetus that has in part produced Incels
in the West.
Such
narratives are already visible in online communities. A case in point in
Singapore is the dissatisfaction of losing girls to white immigrants. Others
take on a slightly different but equally misogynistic flavour, such as the
sentiment of how military conscription sets men back in their career whilst
self-serving and career-minded women are given a step ahead to advance in life.
This sense of male victimhood is something which is universal and could find
resonance and manifest violently in an Asian context through something that
might look like Incel violence.
Policy
Implications
The
question then is whether this group of angry young men warrant the sort of
rigorous counter-terrorism efforts that have been poured into tackling jihadist
extremism.
Certainly
the rise of the extreme right appears to be something that the security
community in the west had overlooked. Some extreme right imagery and ideas from
Reddit, 4chan or 8kun have penetrated Asia and been repurposed for local
conflicts. Pepe the Frog has appeared amongst the Hong Kong democracy movement,
while anti-Muslim feeling in India or Myanmar often steal imagery and ideas
from western discourses online.
This
suggests a spread of ideas from West to East with potentially dangerous
consequences. Male anger is an issue in Asia which might ultimately start to
see Incel ideas as meshing with their broader rage and even present a useful
outlet. Violence could be the result.
Regardless,
any decision to draw Incels into the realm of national security effort must
consider the costs (such as the risk of pushing the community underground) and
benefits (heightened efforts to thwart the threat) of doing so. A community of
angry young men feeling they do not have a place in society is not a new human
phenomenon, putting a terrorist label must be carefully calculated.
*About
the author: Raffaello Pantucci is a Senior Fellow and Kyler Ong an Associate
Research Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence, Terrorism
Research (ICPVTR) of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS),
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
***Source:
This article was originally published in RSIS Commentary, a publication of
RSIS.
RSIS
Commentaries are intended to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy
relevant background and analysis of contemporary developments. The views of the
author/s are their own and do not represent the official position of the
S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU, which produces the
Commentaries.
https://www.rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publication/icpvtr/incels-and-terrorism-sexual-deprivation-as-security-threat/#.X35g25NKjEZ