Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-5jtmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-29T09:46:59.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variations on a Theme: Radical Violent Islamism andEuropean North African Radicalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2008

Jonathan Githens-Mazer
Jonathan Githens-Mazer
Affiliation:
University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Takfiri jihadists, typified by an al-Qaeda perspective, claim thatthe “true” Muslim Umma (the Islamic community) isheld together by a centrifugal universality based on religiousidentity, and that this religion compels people to engage in a formof radical violent Islamism to confront the evils of the Darel-Harb (non-Islamic World). A closer examination ofthose mechanisms of individual radicalization (whether cultural,political, social-psychological, etc.), which lead people to carryout violence in the name of Islam, demonstrates that uniquecombinations of chance encounters; ideological commitments;individual and collective interactions with state and internationalorganizations/institutions; and individual experience account forpropensities to support and participate in radical violent Islamism.Individual processes of mobilization and radicalization and“macro-cultural” contexts serve to ground identities and createrecruitment potential for radical violent Islamists to encourageothers to join and participate in their cause.The support of the British Academy and the Economic andSocial Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. This workhas been supported by a British Academy Small Grant “Memoriesand Massacres in the Formation of Algerian National Identity,”reference SG-41624 and an ESRC research grant under the auspicesof the program, New Security Challenge, and the article reflectsresearch being conducted on ESRC grant RES-181-25-0017. I wouldespecially like to express thanks for the hard work of RebeccaFowler in helping with both this article and the symposium inits entirety.

Information

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 19 - 24
Copyright
© 2008 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Agence France Presse. 2006. “20 Arrested in Spain Over Attacks in Iraq.” Agence France Presse, January 10.Google Scholar
Allen, Peter. 2007. “‘French SAS’ to Triple in Size,” Daily Telegraph, June 25, 19.Google Scholar
Amnesty International . 2003. “Algeria: Steps Towards Change or Empty Promises?” Amnesty International, 46.Google Scholar
Anderson, John Ward. 2005. “France Says Extremists Are Enlisting its Citizens,” Washington Post, October 19.Google Scholar
Aristegui, Gustavo de. 2005. La Yihad en Espana: La Obsesion por Reconquistar Al-Andalus. Madrid: Tapa Blando.Google Scholar
Barbour, Neville. 1957. “The Significance of the Conflict in Algeria.” African Affairs 56: 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begag, Azouz. 2002. “Les Relations France-Algerie Vues de la Diaspora Algerienne.” Modern and Contemporary France 10: 475–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, Mia. 2007. “Dying to Kill: Motivations for Suicide Terrorism.” In Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism: The Globalization of Martyrdom, ed. Ami Pedahzur. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 25–53.Google Scholar
Brand, Laurie. 2006. Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, Jimmy, Jonathan Guthrie, and Roula Khalaf. 2005. “Security Concerns Balanced Against Rights of Dissidents.“ The Financial Times, July 11.Google Scholar
Craig, Olga, and Alasdair Palmer. 2006. “What Makes a Martyr.“ The Sunday Telegraph, October 13, 15.Google Scholar
Crain, Mary M. 1999. “New North African Immigration to Spain.” Middle East Report 211: 23–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, Leslie. 2007. “Today's Migrants ‘Seek Jobs not Conquest.’” The Financial Times, September 8.Google Scholar
Doward, Jamie, Mark Townsend, and Henry McDonald. 2007. “The Making of a New Terror.“ Observer, July 8, 22.Google Scholar
El-Khabar. 2007. “French Ex-Mufti Says Terrorist Threat to Europe ‘Comes from UK.’” El-Khabar, July 8.Google Scholar
Facts on File. 2005. “Rioting Erupts in Immigrant Communities in Paris Suburbs, Spreads Across France; Government Declares State of Emergency.“ Facts on File World News Digest.Google Scholar
Field, Catherine. 2005. “The Time Bombs in France's Suburbs.“ The International Herald Tribune, July 15.Google Scholar
Frijda, N. 1997. “Commemorating.” In The Collective Memory of Political Events, ed. J. Pennebaker, D. Paez, and B. Rimé. New Jersey: Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Gamson, W. 1995. “Constructing Social Protest.” In Social Movements and Culture, ed. H. Johnston and B. Klandermans. London: UCL Press.Google Scholar
Githens-Mazer, Jonathan. 2007. “Myths of Massacre and Nationalist Mobilisation: Ireland and Algeria in Comparative Perspective.” In Ireland and the Middle East, ed. Rory Miller. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.Google Scholar
Guardian, The. 2005. “Muslims Are Not Cockroaches.“ The Guardian, August 11.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, Alec G. 2001. “Generating Migrant Memories.” In Algeria and France, 1800–2000: Identity, Memory, Nostalgia, ed. Patricia M. E. Lorcin. Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Hurst, Greg, and Andrew Norfolk. 2007. “Madrassas ‘Must Teach Citizenship Curriculum.’” Times, May 17.Google Scholar
Jackson, Richard. 2005. Writing the War on Terrorism: Language, Politics and Counter-Terrorism. Manchester: University of Manchester Press.Google Scholar
Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce. 2006. “Ethno-politics and Globalisation in North Africa: The Berber Culture Movement.” The Journal of North African Studies 11: 71–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maleckova, Jitka. 2005. “Impoverished Terrorists: Stereotype or Reality?” In Root Causes of Terrorism: Myths, Realities and Ways Forward, ed. Tore Bjorgo. London: Routledge, 33–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mather, Ian, and Brian Brady. 2005. “Did Soft Touch Britain Make it Easy for Al-Qaeda Killers?” Scotland on Sunday, July 10.Google Scholar
Migdalovitz, Carol. 2005. “Algeria: Current Issues.” In Congressional Research Service: Report for Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress.Google Scholar
Murphy, Emma. 2001. “The State and the Private Sector in North Africa: Seeking Specificity.” Mediterranean Politics 6: 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Emma. 2006. “The Tunisian Mise à Niveau Programme and the Political Economy of Reform.” New Political Economy 11: 519–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newswire, AFP. 2007. “Spain Arrests Three Moroccan Al-Qaeda Suspects.“ Agence France Presse, June 24.Google Scholar
Pape, R. A. 2005. Dying to Win: the Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. New York: Random House.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, Melanie. 2006. Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within. London: Gibson Square.Google Scholar
Ranstorp, Magnus. 2005. “The London Bombings and the Broader Strategic Context.“ Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano.Google Scholar
Reinares, Fernando. 2005. “Is International Terrorism What We Thought it Was? An Empirical Study of the Global Neosalafist Jihad in 2004.“ Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano de Estudios Internacionales y Estrategicos, 12.Google Scholar
Reinares, Fernando. 2007. “To What Extent Does Al-Qaeda Still Pose a Threat to European Societies?” Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano, 5.Google Scholar
Roundup, BBC Media. 2007. “Media See North Africa's Al-Qa'idah Extending Reach.“ BBC, April 13.Google Scholar
Sageman, Marc. 2004. Understanding Terror Networks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saleh, Lillian, and Andrew Carswell. 2005. “Neighbours with a Common Belief—Four Live Only a Short Walk Apart—TERROR ARRESTS: Links in the Chain.“ Daily Telegraph, November 10.Google Scholar
Smith, A. D. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Snow, David Jr., Louis A. Zurcher, and Sheldon Ekland-Olson. 1980. “Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment.” American Sociological Review 45: 787–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturmer, Stefan, and Bernd Simon. 2004. “The Role of Collective Identification in Social Movement Participation: A Panel Study in the Context of the German Gay Movement.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30: 263–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Testas, Abdelaziz. 2002. “The Roots of Algeria's Religious and Ethnic Violence.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 25: 161–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tran, Pierre. 2002. “We Live Like this Everyday. People are Hypocrites.“ The Guardian, May 6.Google Scholar
von Hippel, Karin. 2002. “The Roots of Terrorism: Probing the Myths.” In Superterrorism: Policy Responses, ed. Lawrence Freedman. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waxman, Dov. 1997. Immigration and Identity: A New Security Perspective in Euro-Maghreb Relations. London: RISCT.Google Scholar
White, Robert. 1989. “From Peaceful Process to Guerrilla War: Micromobilization of the Provisional Irish Republican Army.” American Journal of Sociology 64: 1,277–302.Google Scholar
White, Robert W., and Terry Falkenberg White. 1995. “Repression and the Liberal State: The Case of Northern Ireland, 1969–1972.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 39: 330–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilce, James M. 1998. “Communicating Multiple Identities in Muslim Communities: An Introduction.” Ethos 26: 115–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Daniel. 2005. “Violence Erupts as Its Roots are Debated in Plaza; ‘I am not a Terrorist, I'm a Victim’ Youth Says Before French Police Move in.“ Washington Post, November 9.Google Scholar
Wiltfang, Gregory L., and Doug McAdam. 1991. “The Costs and Risks of Social Activism: A Study of Sanctuary Movement Activism.” Social Forces 69: 987–1,010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar