Causes Of Radicalisation
Causes of Radicalisation of Young Muslims and Potential Counter-radicalisation Measures
As the Syrian Civil War and the Islamic State – a Sunni resistance active in Syria and Iraq– continue to create atrocities, the issue of extremism has been brought back to the global political agenda (‘What is Islamic State?’ 2014). Following this, many Western countries including Australia, the UK and Canada, have been bombarded with their young Muslim citizens becoming radicalised despite having no clear connections but their Islamic faith. These countries’ insecurity over this phenomenon includes the possibility of those who travel to Syria and Iraq bringing skills, knowledge as well as radical views back home, and the extreme difficulty of identifying and stopping them in advance. The increasing number of domestic incidents associated with radicalisation in each country too remains their security concerns (Olding 2013).
This essay will examine the causes of radicalisation of young Muslims by using three theories; Social Identity Theory (Hogg 2006), Relative Deprivation (Gurr 1990) and In-group bias (Giannakakis & Fritsche 2011). It will then suggest some potential approaches to counter radicalisation by using intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew 1998) and education. Also, for the purpose of this essay, radicalisation will be considered as ‘a process of adopting an extremist belief system and the willingness to use, support, or facilitate violence and fear, as a method of effecting changes in society’ (Precht 2007, p. 16).
Social identity theory (SIT) is a social psychological analysis that deals with the role of self-conception in-group membership, and defines that a large portion of person’s self-concept is determined by perceived membership in a relevant social group. The theory was first developed by Henri Tajfel in the 1970s and has been used to explain various phenomena including discrimination, prejudice, ethnocentrism and so on (Hogg 2006, p.111).
Relative
As the Syrian Civil War and the Islamic State – a Sunni resistance active in Syria and Iraq– continue to create atrocities, the issue of extremism has been brought back to the global political agenda (‘What is Islamic State?’ 2014). Following this, many Western countries including Australia, the UK and Canada, have been bombarded with their young Muslim citizens becoming radicalised despite having no clear connections but their Islamic faith. These countries’ insecurity over this phenomenon includes the possibility of those who travel to Syria and Iraq bringing skills, knowledge as well as radical views back home, and the extreme difficulty of identifying and stopping them in advance. The increasing number of domestic incidents associated with radicalisation in each country too remains their security concerns (Olding 2013).
This essay will examine the causes of radicalisation of young Muslims by using three theories; Social Identity Theory (Hogg 2006), Relative Deprivation (Gurr 1990) and In-group bias (Giannakakis & Fritsche 2011). It will then suggest some potential approaches to counter radicalisation by using intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew 1998) and education. Also, for the purpose of this essay, radicalisation will be considered as ‘a process of adopting an extremist belief system and the willingness to use, support, or facilitate violence and fear, as a method of effecting changes in society’ (Precht 2007, p. 16).
Social identity theory (SIT) is a social psychological analysis that deals with the role of self-conception in-group membership, and defines that a large portion of person’s self-concept is determined by perceived membership in a relevant social group. The theory was first developed by Henri Tajfel in the 1970s and has been used to explain various phenomena including discrimination, prejudice, ethnocentrism and so on (Hogg 2006, p.111).
Relative