Reframing Muslim 'Radicalism'

This study aims to assess Western policy responses to the threat of global jihadi ideology, and to develop a suitable methodology for making them more effective.

Since 9/11, the ideological threat from global jihadism has been widely interpreted as a 'battle of ideas', prompting responses that aim at preventing vulnerable individuals from adopting the violent extremist ideas of Al Qaeda. Western governments are committed to this ideological battle, and a host of civil society initiatives have also arisen in parallel, based on various and sometimes conflicting perceptions of the nature of the threat. Collectively, they reflect the multiple ways in which a discrete global discourse and practice of 'counter ideology', increasingly labelled 'countering violent extremism', has emerged and intensified over the past decade. The relatively novel religious dimension of the ideological threat posed by global jihadism has also fed into long-standing wider debates in the West on issues such as the relationship between: secular and religious practice in the public sphere; language and violence; and security and liberty, particularly in relation to minority Muslim communities in the West.

Counter-ideological strategies remain relatively under-developed despite the resources deployed for the purpose. An immediate limitation is the rudimentary characterisation in public and official discourses of the nature of what is deemed to be global jihadi ideology. This is partly due to the dominance in policy circles of traditional security studies approaches and the burgeoning sub-field of 'radicalisation' studies, and the related absence of any sustained effort to integrate knowledge of jihadi ideas across the range of academic disciplines that currently address them. It is also related to the disproportionate ideological influence of certain civil society actors and think tanks on the process of shaping counter-ideological policy responses. This has moreover resulted in a failure to place the theory and practice of countering violent extremism in historical context, or to draw on contemporary parallels from outside the West. Overlooked, as a consequence, is the need for greater insight into the ways that the dissemination of global jihadi ideas and, paradoxically, the proliferation of counter-ideological initiatives themselves, are catalysing structural shifts in state-society relations where there are substantial Muslim communities.

This study proposes ways of addressing these gaps. It adopts an innovative, inter-disciplinary approach to challenge conventional ways of viewing global jihadism, with the aim of opening up neglected areas of research, deepening academic understanding, and helping to improve policy practice. The study will draw on insights and methods from neglected areas of academic study - including history, political theory, anthropology, sociology, Islamic studies and area studies - in order to expand the knowledge base available to policymakers and practitioners, alert them to the variegated nature and impacts of global jihadi ideology, and deepen their awareness of the ways in which this ideology is shaped in different geographical contexts. It will also draw on field interviews with key experts, policymakers and practitioners in the UK, US and Europe. The study will suggest concrete ways of incorporating its insights into the formulation of policy, and explore ways of measuring the impact of counter-ideological interventions more effectively in light of the fluid and complex nature and varied effects of the global jihadi phenomenon.

This research is likely to benefit a wide range of users involved in understanding and combating the threat from global jihadism in the UK and abroad, including the US, Europe and Muslim world.

They fall into four broad categories:

- policy-makers engaged in counter-terrorism and social integration issues
- civil society practitioners involved in countering violent extremism
- private research organisations and policy think tanks
- media and public

1. Policy-makers

UK:

Central government: the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office; the Research, Information and Communications Unit; the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Counter-Terrorism department and relevant geographical departments; intelligence agencies, including JTAC.

Local government: including local officers working on the Prevent strand of HMG's CONTEST agenda (Home Office, Communities and Local Government, Police)

US:

Central government: State Department; Homeland Security

Local government: local officers increasingly engaged with counter terrorist issues and engagement with Muslim communities.

Europe:

Central and local government policy-makers involved in counter-terrorism and community integration in the Netherlands and other member states at the European Union.

Policy understandings of the threat from global jihadi ideas are in their relatively early stages despite the increasing government resources being deployed to counter violent extremism. This research will impact on policy-making in this area in two key ways: increasing understanding of the nature of the threat by providing an innovative approach to addressing the complex contextual factors which drive militant Islamist ideas through a comprehensive and integrated inter-disciplinary perspective which brings to the foreground academic approaches often overlooked in policy circles; critically assessing the efficacy of current counter-ideological initiatives within government and identifying ways to improve them. The impact will be immediate in terms of dissemination of the research findings but it will also be longer-term as governments use the findings to help sharpen their existing practices in this area.


2. Civil society practitioners

Organisations involved in countering violent extremism, including those with transnational reach into the Muslim world.

There are numerous organisations involved in countering violent extremism. But their approaches tend to be based on varying readings of the threat from global jihadi ideas. These are informed both by particular theological standpoints as well as the knowledge base available to them. As key actors at the forefront of the conflict within Islam which jihadism has catalysed (and which governments through their engagement programmes recognise), the research will provide them with a deeper understanding of the ideological threat as well as analytical tools to help shape their counter-ideological responses.


3. Private research organisations and think tanks

The range of research and think tank organisations involved in research on global jihadism and actively engaged in countering violent extremism.

The research will deepen knowledge of the ideological threat and identify how policy and media debates have been driven, in part, by the ideological positions of private research organisations. This will impact on such organisations by deepening their understanding of global jihadism and how counter-ideological initiatives are, in some cases, too narrowly defined and ideologically driven. The research is aimed at catalysing a new research agenda and as such will impact on such organisations over a longer period of time.

4. Media and public

My planned media article on the research findings will ensure coverage to the wider public and deepen public understandings of the societal impacts of global jihadism.