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Max Forte's List: Anthropology and "Islamic Radicalization"

  • Jul 22, 09

    An overview of British efforts to recruit social scientists in devising ways to counter a non-defined "radicalization" and the "Islamic threat". The Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK condemned this government research funding scheme.

    • the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth (ASA) passed a resolution that criticized a huge British research program that recruits anthropologists for “anti-terror” spying activities
    • research should inform UK Counter Terrorism policy overseas

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  • Jul 22, 09

    An overview of Scandinavian efforts to use anthropological and other social science research the study "Islamism" as a threat, specifically looking at Muslim migrant minorities in Europe.

    • radicalisation, ideologies and the international consequences of “Islamism"

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  • Jul 22, 09

    Names and concepts like Islamists, fundamentalist Muslims, radical Muslims and Muslim terrorists are in contemporary Denmark and Europe used indiscriminately and often synonymously with unspecified contents. Assuming that the scientific community’s distinguished role is to equip electives with knowledge and insights that will enable them to address
    compelling social issues, it is nevertheless striking how little empirical knowledge is available on the forums and networks where Islamism is the cognitive and ideological common denominator for the creation of a world view that is hostile to the principles of peaceful coexistence. Quite astonishing, when considering that Islamism is designated as the primary enemy of the democratic world, the omnipresent threat, and when, at the time of writing, at least two major wars are being fought against Islamism (in Afghanistan and Iraq). A vast number of billions drained from the Western state funds are being invested in national and international security.

  • Jul 22, 09

    Understanding Muslim community perspectives on political mobilisation and violent extremism is an important but complex issue in Britain and Europe. Too often peaceful Islamic belief, practice and thought has been conflated with violent radicalisation and Islamically inspired political violence, not least because few researchers and commentators have engaged in research that listens to young Muslim’s own views on these issues. While there exists a very real threat of violent extremism in the UK this threat comes from an extremely small minority, and many young Muslims feel as though they are under constant surveillance and scrutiny despite rejecting any form of political violence.

  • Jul 22, 09

    The development of a European Islam has not followed the expectations of most researchers. Instead of forming and reforming in a liberal and secularized manner, radical Islam has developed as perhaps the most distinctive form of European Islam. But the question of why some Muslims become radical has not been easy to answer. Studies propose that there is no single pattern which can explain how and why some young European Muslims become radical. Marginalization, deprivation and resentment may
    provide part of the explanation, but Muslims who are radicalized are
    often fairly well integrated and at least not any more marginalized and
    deprived than large part of the Muslim community. Studies have failed
    to find any psychological deficiencies and while the impact of radical
    religious authorities seems in some cases to have had an influence, in
    others the process seems to be one of self-radicalization. When it comes to the social organization, Marc Sageman claims in his recent book, Leaderless Jihad, that informal networks and independent groups are the new faces of jihadism. This research project will suggest that Colin Campell‟s concept of „the cultic milieu‟ can be employed to help our understanding of radical Islam in Europe. Campell coined the notion of the cultic milieu to describe a counter-cultural environment in a society, where different religious and philosophical currents flourished and intermixed and occasionally provide the background for formation of cults. The concept of the cultic milieu has primarily been used to describe the emergence of alternative religiosity from belief in flying saucers to neo-shamanism, but has also proved its value in studies of neo-nazism and radical racialism. It puts emphasis on a milieu of seekers and a diversity of coexisting counter-cultural ideologies which may prove useful to
    understanding how some Muslims may become radicalized. The project will place Islamic radicalism within a broader framework by concentrating on one
    locality, Århus, and by focusing on the different d

  • Jul 22, 09

    Center for Studies of Islamism and Radicalisation
    [C.I.R.]
    Islamism and Radicalisation. The Denmark-School

  • Jul 22, 09

    Website of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence

    • Imagine this scenario for 2002 – science fiction a short while ago, exceedingly likely now. The world had entered the paranoid phase of globalisation. Countries were neither at war nor not at war. Detailed surveillance of citizens and quixotic imprisonment of individuals became commonplace. Politicians eagerly elaborated on the imminent threat of terrorist attacks, thereby justifying ever more draconian measures. Radical humanist networks and human rights groups were ostracised for their lack of loyalty and structural similarities to terrorist groups. Yet everybody, including the politicians, knew in their heart of hearts that turning the citizenry into potential enemies would only aggravate the problem.
    • GENEVA – Swiss voters approved a move to ban the construction of minarets in a Sunday vote on a right-wing initiative that labeled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam, projections by a widely respected polling institute showed.
    • The nationalist Swiss People's Party describes minarets, the distinctive spires used in most countries for calls to prayer, as symbols of rising Muslim political and religious power that could eventually turn Switzerland into an Islamic nation.

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