Leveraging Natural Language Processing to Analyse the Temporal Behavior of Extremists on Social Media

Aiming at achieving sustainability and quality of life for citizens, future smart cities adopt a data-centric approach to decision making in which assets, people, and events are constantly monitored to inform decisions. Public opinion monitoring is of particular importance to governments and intelligence agencies, who seek to monitor extreme views and attempts of radicalizing individuals in society. While social media platforms provide increased visibility and a platform to express public views freely, such platforms can also be used to manipulate public opinion, spread hate speech, and radicalize others. Natural language processing and data mining techniques have gained popularity for the analysis of social media content and the detection of extremists and radical views expressed online. However, existing approaches simplify the concept of radicalization to a binary problem in which individuals are classified as extremists or non-extremists. Such binary approaches do not capture the radicalization process\u27s complexity that is influenced by many aspects such as social interactions, the impact of opinion leaders, and peer pressure. Moreover, the longitudinal analysis of users\u27 interactions and profile evolution over time is lacking in the literature. Aiming at addressing those limitations, this work proposes a sophisticated framework for the analysis of the temporal behavior of extremists on social media platforms. Far-right extremism during the Trump presidency was used as a case study, and a large dataset of over 259,000 tweets was collected to train and test our models. The results obtained are very promising and encourage the use of advanced social media analytics in the support of effective and timely decision-making

Tunisian terrorist fighters: a grassroots perspective

In a hectic consolidation phase plagued by security, economic and social challenges, Tunisia has stood out as the biggest sender of foreign terrorist fighters to the so-called Islamic State. How do grassroots forces frame the issue in the context of the democratic transition and post-revolutionary consolidating phase? In order to address this question, this article builds on fieldwork visits to Tunisia (including observation of the parliamentary elections in 2014 and background talks) and relies on a set of semi-structured interviews conducted from 2014 to 2017 with Tunisian civil society activists, students and young people, understood as voices representing grassroots. Though viewpoints from the grassroots agree on economic and social grievances as a motivating factor for Tunisian terrorist fighters, more emphasis is drawn to the ideological void filled in by the Salafi discourse after the Arab Spring and the need to replace the Tunisian understanding of Islam related to the Middle Way (el Wasatiyyah) in the political debate

The Muslim vote and Muslim lobby in France: Myths and Realities

This article presents an analysis of Muslims in France to counter the myth of a Muslim lobby, particularly relating to foreign policy. Assumptions of a Muslim lobby rely on the existence of a homogenous voting block which requires: (1) the homogeneity, unity and efficient organisation of Muslims, (2) the crucial role of faith in determining their political participation and behaviour as well as (3) their strong interest in foreign policy issues. The central question is then: are these conditions fulfilled in the case of French Muslims? Is there a Muslim voting block? The study emphasizes three elements to answer this question: the heterogeneity of what is understood as \u27Muslims\u27, the absence of an ethnic vote, the absence of foreign policy issues in determining the vote

Mobilizing in Different Political Opportunity Structures The Cases of French and British Muslims

I ssues related to Islam in the European sphere have increasingly been at the forefront of public spaces and part of decision makers\u27 agendas. According to the European Union (EU) Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, the EU includes at least 13 million Muslims, representing 5 percent of Europeans.1 For Jocelyne Césari, Muslim immigration to Europe and North America can be seen as the foundational moment for a new transcultural space-a space where individuals live and experience different cultural references and values that are now disconnected from national contexts and boundaries. 2 Such a transcultural space is characterized by the forceful emergence of a transnational religion (Islam) in a secularized public space (Europe).3 This situation necessarily leads to tensions; that is, European Muslims experience difficult relations with their respective governments.4 The context of the war on terror since the attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) and the security implied have drawn additional attention to Muslims and their claims-making in terms of economic, political, and religious rights in European countries. Muslims\u27 integration is considered a challenge constructed as a confrontation between religious discourses and secular spaces. Of course, national differences have different effects in terms of the conceptualization of multiculturalism, and one can distinguish among them by different philosophies of integration.

From Islamic Dress and Islamic Fashion to Cool Islam: An Exploration of Muslim Youth Hybrid Identities in the West

Debates regarding visible Islamic practices in the West and particularly in European secular spaces reflect the tensions related to religious expression in the public sphere. Assumptions are often being made on the meaning of these practices leading to speculations on the willingness of young Muslims to be fully part of society at large. However, Islam and its practices are not immune to global cultural, individualist, consumerist, and neoliberal trends. This paper thus explores the new dynamics characterizing Islamic dress so as to reveal that far from separating themselves from society at large, young Muslims in the West adopt Islamic forms of Islamic dress that are reinterpreted in light of these consumerist, cultural, and neoliberal trends. Therefore, young Muslims do not showcase a closed identity but on the contrary, display different layers of identity translated into hybrid dressing practices. The paper focuses on two case studies of hybrid expressions: modest fashion and Muslim streetwear

Muslims and foreign policy in France: A case-study of UOIF and the Palestinian issue

European Muslim communities\u27 views on foreign policy constitute a growing topic of research. This article presents a case study of the status of the Palestinian issue in France and focuses on one particular actor, namely the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF). The content analysis of several documents and press releases issued by the UOIF aims at characterizing how the UOIF frames the conflict and mobilizes on the issue. Then, the analysis replaces a range of actors, including the UOIF, in the context of the Israeli operation in Gaza, which took place between 27 December 2008 and 17 January 2009. The examination of press archives is meant to characterize different actors\u27 behaviors, narratives and reactions to the crisis

Muslims in France and Great Britain: Issues of Securitization, Identities and Loyalties Post 9/11

The September 11, 2001 attacks in the USA have liberated an encompassing rhetoric globally, which designates all that is Muslim or perceived to be such, as a threat. The securitizing perspective, intertwined with debates over Muslims\u27 integration and increasingly visible religiosity has led to growing suspicions regarding Muslims\u27 loyalties in Europe. This analysis seeks to characterize this securitizing perspective and considers, on the one hand, the inherent equalization of increasing Muslim identity awareness with disloyalty, and on the other, the depiction of Muslims in Europe as a homogenous block, which facilitates constructing them as the Other . As an illustration, this paper focuses more particularly on France and Great Britain

Muslim youth and consumerism: a study of Islamic street wear

Drawing on a framework that goes beyond the usual securitization lens and that includes other neglected sociological dynamics, namely consumerism and individualization, this article explores an overlooked form of dress in the research on Islamic dress in the West which is Islamic street wear. This analysis interrogates what Islamic street wear reveals, in terms of identity, about the experience of young Muslims living as a minority in secular spaces. Various messages collected from message T-shirts are deconstructed to precisely highlight the effect of these different dynamics on the articulation of identities by young Muslims. A theoretical framework grounded in the notion of hybridity guides a systematic content analysis of the messages. The analysis of these messages reveals the strong individualization of faith deriving from consumerist patterns, the rather limited expression of the controversial ummatic loyalty to Muslims worldwide and the assertion of pride in Muslim identity

European Muslims and their Foreign Policy Interests: Identities and Loyalties

In a global context marked by terrorist threats, Muslim communities in the West have come under increasing scrutiny. Sensitive questions on identity arise with regard to their foreign policy interests and their loyalties. This book investigates the foreign policy interests and political mobilization of Muslims in Europe, specifically in France and Great Britain, contributing to shed light on these difficult questions