ABSTRACT
This chapter provides important new insights into the conditions conducive to successful counter-radicalization and deradicalization programmes. Understanding counter-radicalization and rehabilitation efforts in Muslim-majority states is therefore important for several reasons. Civil society organizations also have the ability to create far-reaching social networks, to multiply those networks and to reach the most recalcitrant members of society in ways that the state and its institutions cannot. Bangladeshi authorities relied completely on their civil society to implement the country’s counter-radicalization programme after 2005. One time-relatable factor is the preparedness of violent extremist groups themselves to unilaterally denounce violence and disengage from militant discourse. The arrival of new leadership provides an exceptionally specific period of time during which counter-deradicalization and other reforms can be fully implemented. New leadership is usually less constrained by the relationship with powerful domestic interest groups that might oppose reform, such as the army or security forces.
