Religion, Radicalization and De-radicalization Processes: A Comparative Perspective

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 October 2022) | Viewed by 8624

Special Issue Editors

Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research, 39100 Bozen, Italy
Interests: international protection of minority rights; old and new minorities; integration and human rights; diversity governance; international law and religious minorities; rom/sinti and minority protection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research, 39100 Bozen, Italy
Interests: language rights; multilingualism and linguistic diversity; new minorities and heritage lamguages; language variation and hybrid language practices; civic education; de-radicalisation
Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research, 39100 Bozen, Italy
Interests: human rights; transnational advocacy; NGOs; diaspora groups; social media; cultural heritage; strategic partnerships

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Radicalization and deradicalization processes involving religion are always intertwined with other issues, such as injustice, grievance, alienation and polarization. Religion and policies to accommodate religious diversity have political and social consequences; they can reinforce or diffuse conflicts, tensions or social unrest and can be instruments of inclusion or exclusion, affecting the stability and security of the society. Accordingly, religion in its dimensions such as identity, practice, doctrine or spirituality combines with local, national, and transnational political processes, actors or issues. State politics is affected by political processes involving religion and vice versa, transnational religious movements, organizations, networks and communities challenge not only states’ sovereignty claims or existing models of diversity governance, but also concern public security and societal cohesion. In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic that accentuates the spread of fake news, and serves as a catalysator for conspiracy theories, religion plays an ambivalent role. Religious beliefs have the potential to protect against misanthropy and the scapegoating of minorities, and thus might enable a constructive approach to social cohesion; they can also serve as a vehicle for splitting 'good' and 'evil', 'friend' and 'foe'.

Against this background, this Religions Special Issue aims to shed light on the ambiguous role of religion and religious diversity within radicalization and deradicalization processes. In particular, the SI will look at how the interplay between issues revolving around religious diversity and radicalization, as well as which dynamics trigger processes of religious radicalization and deradicalization. In other words, how does one balance religious diversity to prevent radicalization and promote the security of both religious majorities and minorities? How does one reconcile the demands for religious diversity and political stability and unity, that is, how is a political community that is both cohesive, stable and satisfies the legitimate aspirations of minorities, created? Which policies should be implemented to achieve this aim? Therefore, how does one overcome the risk of the essentialization of religion, religious communities and minority cultures by political mobilization, leading to the division of societies into us-versus-them antagonisms?

Dr. Roberta Medda-Windischer
Dr. Mattia Zeba
Dr. Alexandra Cosima Budabin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • radicalization
  • deradicalization
  • religion
  • religious minorities
  • religious diversity
  • grievance
  • polarization
  • public security
  • social cohesion

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 441 KiB  
Article
State and Religion: The French Response to Jihadist Violence
by Roman Zinigrad and Stephen W. Sawyer
Religions 2023, 14(8), 1010; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14081010 - 07 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1271
Abstract
The five acts of jihadist violence between 2012–2020, particularly the 2015 Paris attacks, combined with an increasingly polarized political discourse in France, have pushed jihadist extremism to the center of government policy and public opinion. Approaches to jihadist extremism in the last decade [...] Read more.
The five acts of jihadist violence between 2012–2020, particularly the 2015 Paris attacks, combined with an increasingly polarized political discourse in France, have pushed jihadist extremism to the center of government policy and public opinion. Approaches to jihadist extremism in the last decade have comprised two characteristics: claims amalgamating Islam and Muslim religious practice—especially in its stricter forms—with extremist violence, along with the idea that such forms of dangerous religious indoctrination are best battled through education. As a result, there has been a renewed debate concerning the principle of laïcité (secularism) within public schools and other public institutions. One of the leading efforts in this context has focused on processes of “deradicalization”. These projects include various educational tools, rehabilitation attempts inside and outside of prisons, cultural and artistic initiatives, and administrative bans imposed on organizations inciting violence. However, the most ambitious of these efforts have also been subject to the greatest criticism. Projects within the public school system have been accused of securitizing education and stigmatizing Muslim students, whereas measures undertaken in prisons are currently limited to risk assessment of inmates linked with jihadist violence, while lacking more meaningful plans for their rehabilitation. Public–private partnerships have developed more promising initiatives, but their moderate success is still recent and requires further study. Full article
21 pages, 309 KiB  
Article
Adolescence as a “Radical” Age and Prevention of Violent Radicalisation: A Qualitative Study of Operators of a Juvenile Penal Circuit in Italy
by Mohammed Khalid Rhazzali and Valentina Schiavinato
Religions 2023, 14(8), 989; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14080989 - 31 Jul 2023
Viewed by 706
Abstract
In the scientific community, the topic of the risk of violent radicalisation within the juvenile penal circuit is infrequently explored compared to the attention devoted to the adult prison population or to other areas of social and educational intervention. This article presents some [...] Read more.
In the scientific community, the topic of the risk of violent radicalisation within the juvenile penal circuit is infrequently explored compared to the attention devoted to the adult prison population or to other areas of social and educational intervention. This article presents some results of a study conducted, within the framework of a European project led by the Italian Ministry of Justice, at some institutions of the juvenile penal circuit in Italy, with the involvement of staff working at the Offices of Social Services for Minors (USSM), the Juvenile Penal Institutes (IPM), and the reception communities of two Italian regions (North and South). The article aims to explore the viewpoint of the professionals working in these facilities, analysing their perceptions and experiences regarding the radicalisation of young people in the penal circuit. This concept is understood both in a broader sense, evoking the characteristics of adolescence, as experienced by the population in their charge, and also in the more specific sense of religious radicalisation and its possible violent outcomes. The article shows how, when referring to the task of detecting possible signs of (violent) radicalisation in the behaviour of young people, penal-circuit professionals highlight the difficulties and risks they encounter in the attempt to reconcile educational and supervisory tasks. The personal and social characteristics of the population under their care and the more specific characteristics of the adolescent phase, in fact, seem to constitute factors that make the process of the detection of radicalisation more complex, with the risk of increasing the labelling and stigmatisation of these young offenders, thus, paradoxically, favouring outcomes that would be desirable to prevent. Full article
12 pages, 929 KiB  
Article
Spoiler or Facilitator? Radicalization of the Georgian Orthodox Church and Its Impact on Societal Resilience in Georgia
by Bidzina Lebanidze and Shota Kakabadze
Religions 2023, 14(2), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020272 - 17 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1771
Abstract
This article explores the process of creeping radicalization within the Georgian Orthodox Church and its implications for building societal resilience in the country. In doing so, it aims to fill the gap in the literature on the role of dominant religious organizations in [...] Read more.
This article explores the process of creeping radicalization within the Georgian Orthodox Church and its implications for building societal resilience in the country. In doing so, it aims to fill the gap in the literature on the role of dominant religious organizations in resilience building in Georgia and in the broader post-Soviet region. Our analysis ascribes a mostly negative impact to the Georgian Orthodox Church on the country’s societal resilience. We identify two possible mechanisms with which the Georgian Orthodox Church undermines societal resilience in Georgia: (1) by decreasing general trust in society and (2) by inspiring anti-Western narratives, which undermine the basis of Georgia’s national identity. Full article
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20 pages, 626 KiB  
Article
The Narrative Foundations of Radical and Deradicalizing Online Discursive Spaces: A Comparison of the Cases of Generation Islam and Jamal al-Khatib in Germany
by Rami Ali, Özgür Özvatan and Linda Walter
Religions 2023, 14(2), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020167 - 29 Jan 2023
Viewed by 1871
Abstract
Radical/extremist Islamist actors use social media to disseminate uncompromising stories of monist religious political orders and identities. As a reaction, counter-movements to online Islamist radicalism/extremism emerged in Western societies (and beyond), while uncertainty about effective outcomes remains widespread. In a bid to understand [...] Read more.
Radical/extremist Islamist actors use social media to disseminate uncompromising stories of monist religious political orders and identities. As a reaction, counter-movements to online Islamist radicalism/extremism emerged in Western societies (and beyond), while uncertainty about effective outcomes remains widespread. In a bid to understand how inclusionary and exclusionary discursive spaces are created, we ask: How do some Muslim actors create discursive spaces open to self-reflection, pluralism and liberal-democratic principles, while others construct illiberal, particularistic and non/anti-democratic spaces? To respond to this question, we compare two contrasting storytellers, one who agitates for exclusionary Islamist radicalism/extremism (Generation Islam) and one who offers inclusionary prevention and deradicalization work against that (Jamal al-Khatib). We draw on novel narrative approaches to the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), via which we compare text-level and context-level narratives disseminated about three Muslim-related crises: the racist terrorist attacks/genocide to represent the national, European and global level. Our two-layered, DHA-inspired narrative analysis illustrates that, at the level of text, narrative persuasion varies between both contrasting actors. While Jamal al-Khatib disseminates persuasive stories, Generation Islam is much less invested in narrative persuasion; it seems to address an already convinced audience. These two text-level strategies reveal their meaning in two antagonistic narrative genres: Jamal al-Khatib’s “self-reflexive savior” creates an inclusionary discursive space represented in a self-ironic narrative genre, while Generation Islam’s ”crusading savior” manufactures an exclusionary discursive space represented in a romance featuring a nostalgic return to the particularistic Islamic umma. Full article
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20 pages, 355 KiB  
Article
On Pride, Flags and Flowers: Jerusalem’s Public Parades as a Mechanism for (de)Radicalisation
by Sophia Solomon and Kobi Gal
Religions 2022, 13(12), 1190; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121190 - 05 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1541
Abstract
The practice of public parades involving marches has been used historically by political and civic actors as a tool of helping to accomplish recognition of particular agendas or, at the very least, suggest a peaceful proclamation of justice within a democratic framework. Over [...] Read more.
The practice of public parades involving marches has been used historically by political and civic actors as a tool of helping to accomplish recognition of particular agendas or, at the very least, suggest a peaceful proclamation of justice within a democratic framework. Over the past two decades, The pride parade and The flag parade are drawing the attention of radical stakeholders in Israel whilst taking place in Jerusalem—a religiously divided space. Based on EU official reports and data from news reports and social media publications between 2002 and 2022, this paper examines religious extremists’ presence in the above parades, in parallel to the appearance of incitement, physical violence and vandalism. All as part of an ongoing Radicalisation process. In addition, it observes the establishment of The flower parade as a civic counter-response initiated by deradicalisation agents. The research reveals that under the values and rule of democracy, the mechanism of public parades can self-trigger a dynamic between participants and opposers, exploited by extreme collectives for violent purposes. It reflects upon a fundamental dispute between different interpretations of the connection between Judaism, nationality and family values in the light of the democratic framework. One is leading to religious-based exclusion agenda on the one hand, while the other is reacting with inclusion activities on the other. Full article
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