Containing Muslim extremism and radicalism

This article argues that wars, atrocities, radicalism and extremism have been caused by many interrelated external socio-economic, political and ethnic factors, even though religious communities are involved. However, internal factors such as the role of religious education, are instrumental in understanding religious radicalism and extremism, including among some Muslims. This article also elucidates the dual nature of Islamic religiosity in Asia i.e. its manifested diversity and underlying unity, traces Muslim historical treatment of religious extremism, and suggests that certain methodological and doctrinal aspects of contemporary Islamic education may have contributed to an extremist outlook and behavior. It offers a few specific and practical recommendations involving the external and internal factors to significantly reduce the phenomena of extremism among Muslims, especially in Asi

Does Parental Unemployment Cause Right-Wing Extremism?

Recent years have witnessed a rise in right-wing extremism among German youth and young adults. This paper investigates the extent to which the experience of parental unemployment during childhood affects young people's far right-wing attitudes and xenophobia. Estimates from three German data sets show a positive relationship between growing up with unemployed parents and right-wing extremism, with xenophobia in particular. This paper uses stark differences in unemployment levels between East and West Germany, both before and after reunification, to investigate a causal relationship. Instrumental variables estimates suggest strong and significant effects of parental unemployment on right-wing extremism. Various panel estimates also point to a positive relationship. The results are consistent with classical theories of economic interest and voting behaviour which predict that persons who develop feelings of economic insecurity are more susceptible to right-wing extremism and anti-foreign sentiments.Right-wing extremism, unemployment, instrumental variables estimations, panel estimators, intergenerational links

Ideological containment: Islamic extremism and the option of theological dialogue

Islamic extremism is founded on a dualist worldview: the realm of truth and the sacred (dar al Islam) set in opposition to the realm of falsehood, chaos and war (dar al harb). An ideology of contestation underpins Islamist radicalisation. And Islamic political thought is inherently theological; any response to the political ideology that arises from the dualist worldview must necessarily address allied theological perspectives and presuppositions. In October 2007 an ‘Open Letter and Call from Muslim Religious Leaders’ emanating from Jordan, entitled A Common Word Between Us and You, was issued to the Christian Church worldwide. What is at the heart of this ‘call’? What does it suggest with regard to an Islamic theological counter to dualism? What might it portend for the future of relations with Islam? Does it signal a new era for theological dialogue with Islam and co-operative conjoining in the wider struggle against radicalisation and extremism? This paper will introduce the letter, review some representative responses to it thus far, note some issues and challenges that are raised and, by way of conclusion, offer a perspective on containing ideological extremism through interfaith theological dialogue. Can the dialogue option enable the addressing of theological factors inherent in the ideological underpinnings of Islamic extremism, thereby acting to contain it

Right-Wing Extremism and the Well-Being of Immigrants

This study analyzes the effects of right-wing extremism on the well-being of immigrants based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 1984 to 2006 merged with state-level information on election outcomes. The results show that the life satisfaction of immigrants is significantly reduced if right-wing extremism in the native population increases. Moreover, the life satisfaction of highly educated immigrants is affected more strongly than that of low-skilled immigrants. This supports the view that policies aimed at making immigration more attractive to the high-skilled have to include measures that reduce xenophobic attitudes in the native population.well-being, life satisfaction, right-wing extremism, migration, SOEP

Can extremism guarantee pluralism?

Many models have been proposed to explain opinion formation in groups of individuals; most of these models study opinion propagation as the interaction between nodes/agents in a social network. Opinion formation is a complex process and a realistic model should also take into account the important feedbacks that the opinions of the agents have on the structure of the social networks and on the characteristics of the opinion dynamics. In this paper we will show that associating to different agents different kinds of interconnections and different interacting behaviours can lead to interesting scenarios, like the coexistence of several opinion clusters, namely pluralism. In our model agents have opinions uniformly and continuously distributed between two extremes. The social network is formed through a social aggregation mechanism including the segregation process of the extremists that results in many real communities. We show how this process affects the opinion dynamics in the whole society. In the opinion evolution we consider the different predisposition of single individuals to interact and to exchange opinion with each other; we associate to each individual a different tolerance threshold, depending on its own opinion: extremists are less willing to interact with individuals with strongly different opinions and to change significantly their ideas. A general result is obtained: when there is no interaction restriction, the opinion always converges to uniformity, but the same is happening whenever a strong segregation process of the extremists occurs. Only when extremists are forming clusters but these clusters keep interacting with the rest of the society, the survival of a wide opinion range is guaranteed.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure

Australian Government measures to counter violent extremism: a quick guide

This guide identifies what is meant by violent extremism and outlines relevant counter-measures pursued by the Australian Government to date. Introduction Countering violent extremism was highlighted as an ‘essential element’ of efforts to deal with the ‘foreign fighters’ issue in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted on 24 September 2014 (Resolution 2178 (2014)). On 11 January 2015, the White House announced it would host a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism on 18 February 2015 ‘to highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups ... to commit acts of violence’. The Attorney-General told the Senate on 9 February 2015 that he would represent Australia at the Summit. Against that background, this Quick Guide identifies broadly what is meant by violent extremism and outlines relevant counter-measures pursued by the Australian Government to date

A Continuous Opinion Dynamics Model Based on the Principle of Meta-Contrast

We propose a new continuous opinion dynamics model inspired by social psychology. It is based on a central assumption of self-categorization theory called principle of meta-contrast. We study the behaviour of the model for several network interactions and show that, in particular, consensus, polarization or extremism are possible outcomes, even without explicit introduction of extremist agents. The model is compared to other existing opinion dynamics models.Opinion Dynamics, Self-Categorization Theory, Consensus, Polarization, Extremism

The Fiqh Wasaṭiyyah Approach Towards the Involvement of Malaysian Women in Religious Extremism Phenomenon

The trend of women's active participation in religious extremism phenomenon has become a serious global threat, including for Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. This paper aims to offer a fiqh approach in the form of wasaṭiyyah in order to reinforce counter-laws of religious extremism, especially on the issue of Malaysian women's involvement in the Daesh extremist group (al-Dawlah al-Islāmiyyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa al-Shām). Through library and field research, this paper concludes that an approach of fiqh wasaṭiyyah, which is based on the reality of law and the reality of religious extremism, can be developed. This research is hoped to assist various parties, especially the Malaysian government, to improve existing deradicalization process and strengthen the efforts to restraint religious extremism in the grassroots