Dr. Emily Bashah
Dr. Emily Bashah: What Is Driving Violent Exremism?
On the latest edition of the Justice Counts Podcast, my guest is Dr. Emily Bashah, an author, clinical psychologist, and Arab Jew. Emily discusses the factors that lead to anti-semitism and addictive ideologies, including those that have led to the tragic war in the Gaza Strip.
My co-host, Bob Gatty, and I asked a variety of questions, including her opinion of recent college campus demonstrations where students have shown support for Hamas terrorists, and criticized Israel for defending itself. Dr. Bashah was asked for her thoughts about Israel being portrayed as the aggressor rather than the defender in this conflict.
Jews, she says, have "never had something to defend aside from our own ethnic, religious, spiritual, racial identity. And so we learned to uproot ourselves to survive. Because it wasn't worth staying to defend until the state of Israel was created,” Today, Israel will stop at nothing to defend the Jewish State."
With violent extremism on the rise in the U.S. and around the world, many of us are tempted to write off extremists as beyond help. According to Emily, the lack of understanding of what causes extremism fuels the fire.
"The thought of understanding extremists feels very icky to many of us," says Dr. Bashah, who has worked on high-profile cases covering issues of domestic terrorism and capital offenses. "But the truth is, more and more seemingly reasonable individuals are falling into the trap of violent extremism and are lured in by compelling conspiracy theories and a feeling of control they have when they engage with extremist ideologies. By not working to understand extremists, we are actually encouraging extremism to continue."
Dr. Bashah was awarded the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Policy Fellowship, served within the American Psychological Association’s Public Interest Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C., and co-authored the highly-praised book Addictive Ideologies . Here, again, is the link to this extraordinary podcast, one of the best we have done.
https://www.spreaker.com/user/14842203/dr-emily-bashah-addictive-ideologies-11-
Enjoy! Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
Regards, Mark