Today Saffiya Shaikh, a 36-year-old jihadist convert, was sentenced to life for trying to blow up St. Paul& #39;s Cathedral.

Last year I came across her YouTube profile.

So what do her browsing habits reveal about her radicalisation?

Turns out, quite a lot:
2/ She made playlists, and lots of them: 89 over the course of 12 months. That& #39;s almost one every four days.

So she spent a lot of time consuming this - mostly extremist - material.

But it also shows us what was happening in her life.
2/ She made playlists, and lots of them: 89 over the course of 12 months. That& #39;s almost one every four days.So she spent a lot of time consuming this - mostly extremist - material.But it also shows us what was happening in her life.
2/ She made playlists, and lots of them: 89 over the course of 12 months. That& #39;s almost one every four days.So she spent a lot of time consuming this - mostly extremist - material.But it also shows us what was happening in her life.
2/ She made playlists, and lots of them: 89 over the course of 12 months. That& #39;s almost one every four days.So she spent a lot of time consuming this - mostly extremist - material.But it also shows us what was happening in her life.
2/ She made playlists, and lots of them: 89 over the course of 12 months. That& #39;s almost one every four days.So she spent a lot of time consuming this - mostly extremist - material.But it also shows us what was happening in her life.
3/ She was addicted to drugs (heroin) and looking for answers, all framed through her faith.

It might seem strange that a jihadist would be taking drugs.

They& #39;re supposed to be pious, right? Not always. Jihadists taking drugs is more common than you may think.
3/ She was addicted to drugs (heroin) and looking for answers, all framed through her faith.It might seem strange that a jihadist would be taking drugs.They& #39;re supposed to be pious, right? Not always. Jihadists taking drugs is more common than you may think.
3/ She was addicted to drugs (heroin) and looking for answers, all framed through her faith.It might seem strange that a jihadist would be taking drugs.They& #39;re supposed to be pious, right? Not always. Jihadists taking drugs is more common than you may think.
3/ She was addicted to drugs (heroin) and looking for answers, all framed through her faith.It might seem strange that a jihadist would be taking drugs.They& #39;re supposed to be pious, right? Not always. Jihadists taking drugs is more common than you may think.
4/ She also appears naive, gullible, and lacking in critical thinking skills.

One playlist was called & #39;Magic& #39;, with videos saying you can change the colour of your eyes by listening to certain sound frequencies.

You can& #39;t do this, but she seems to have tried.
5/ Shaikh was also isolated from her family. Converts often find their new lives to be difficult.

Her relationship with the father of her child also didn& #39;t work out well.

She created a FB page and met other convert & #39;sisters& #39;, but was soon ostracised for her extremist views.
6/ Put all of these things together - her drug use, social isolation, and naivety - and you have someone who could be "vulnerable" to extremist messaging.

So she watched videos.

Abdallah Azzam, Osama bin Laden, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, and more

Basically a jihadist "who& #39;s who"
6/ Put all of these things together - her drug use, social isolation, and naivety - and you have someone who could be "vulnerable" to extremist messaging.So she watched videos.Abdallah Azzam, Osama bin Laden, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, and moreBasically a jihadist "who& #39;s who"
6/ Put all of these things together - her drug use, social isolation, and naivety - and you have someone who could be "vulnerable" to extremist messaging.So she watched videos.Abdallah Azzam, Osama bin Laden, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, and moreBasically a jihadist "who& #39;s who"
7/ But a lot of that "old school" material is pretty dull. It& #39;s in Arabic, old, and doesn& #39;t cater to a "Western" audience.

So who did watch more than anything?

Videos from the "new school" of radicalisers. They live in the West, speak English, and pump out *a lot* of content.
7/ But a lot of that "old school" material is pretty dull. It& #39;s in Arabic, old, and doesn& #39;t cater to a "Western" audience.So who did watch more than anything?Videos from the "new school" of radicalisers. They live in the West, speak English, and pump out *a lot* of content.
7/ But a lot of that "old school" material is pretty dull. It& #39;s in Arabic, old, and doesn& #39;t cater to a "Western" audience.So who did watch more than anything?Videos from the "new school" of radicalisers. They live in the West, speak English, and pump out *a lot* of content.
7/ But a lot of that "old school" material is pretty dull. It& #39;s in Arabic, old, and doesn& #39;t cater to a "Western" audience.So who did watch more than anything?Videos from the "new school" of radicalisers. They live in the West, speak English, and pump out *a lot* of content.
8/ Which makes you wonder:

If all that all that extremist content was - and remains - so accessible on YouTube, why haven& #39;t they taken it down?

Well, much of it it presented in a careful way that doesn& #39;t explicitly incite people to carry out attacks.
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