scholarly journals Losing the Plot: Narrative, Counter-Narrative and Violent Extremism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Glazzard
Keyword(s):  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Violent Extremism

Using Muslims Mannerism and Habits (UMMAH): An Early Warning Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 416
Author(s):  
Yusuf Abubakar Mamud ◽  
Oboshi J Agyeno
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
Hard Power ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Islamic Faith ◽  
Hate Violence ◽  
Current Reality

The fight against terrorism has long relied on military intervention and hard power strategy to curb terror threats. Current reality and the spade at which youths who are radicalized under the banner of religion to carry out terrorist activities has called for more attention paid on alternative counterterrorism (CT) measures and policies. CT initiatives should be broadened to accommodate soft power approach that interrupts the radicalization and recruitment of civilians into violent extremism and terrorism. It is revealed that more terrorist actions and violent extremism had been undertaking by youths that professed the Islamic faith more than any in the 21st century. The worrisome trend has called the development of UMMAH as a CT strategy to understand the narratives and messaging exploited by recruiters and facilitators of violent extremism as a religious obligation. The strategy demands a counter narrative and messages that would replace the message of hate, violence and bigotry, with love, peace, tolerance and coexistence.

scholarly journals Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Facebook Campaigns in Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-148
Author(s):  
Anne Speckhard ◽  
Molly Ellenberg
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Violent Extremism

Despite the territorial demise of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], the group’s cyberoperations, which once drew an unprecedented 45,000 foreign terrorist fighters [FTFs] to their so-called Caliphate, continue to entice supporters online. ISIS’s slick, high-quality content encourages supporters to hope for the return of the Caliphate and to seek revenge upon those who destroyed it by executing attacks at home. The European Union [EU] was one of the highest contributors of FTFs to ISIS and continues to be a hotspot for ISIS directed and inspired attacks. The International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism [ICSVE] has produced over 180 counter narrative video clips featuring ISIS defectors, returnees, and imprisoned cadres denouncing the group, published in over 100 Facebook campaigns. This article details the results of 20 one-minute long counter narrative Facebook campaigns in eight EU countries. The results support marketing best practices of using shorter videos to increase viewer retention and suggest that EU viewers are more engaged with counter narratives in which the speaker is relatable and representative of the audience toward which the video is targeted.

Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Project: Understanding, Preventing, and Intervening in Militant Jihadi Terrorism and Violent Extremism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Speckhard ◽  
Molly Ellenberg ◽  
Zack Baddorf
Keyword(s):  
The Internet ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Internet Recruitment ◽  
Research Psychologist

The content of this chapter describes the processes by which individuals become radicalized toward militant jihadi terrorism and ultimately join terrorist groups using ISIS recruitment and radicalization within ISIS as the focus of doing so. In doing so, it identifies steps that practitioners and policy makers can use to prevent and counter violent jihadist extremism by taking a nuanced approach that considers psychosocial vulnerabilities and environmental factors that contribute to radicalization. The case studies presented to illustrate these points are gleaned from the 240 interviews [1] with ISIS defectors, returnees, and imprisoned cadres interviewed by the first author, a research psychologist, in her role as director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and well as hundreds of terrorists from other groups. In the case of the ISIS interviews, with the interviewees’ consent, the interviews were video-recorded and cut to create short counter narrative clips that can be used as a powerful tool for challenging the beliefs that individuals who have been exposed to ISIS propaganda may hold. This chapter also focuses on the Internet campaigns that ICSVE has used to test various aspects of the counter narrative videos, revealing the best ways to utilize the counter narratives and to maximize their impact online. Given that ISIS has become notorious for its skill at Internet recruitment and creating high-quality propaganda videos, it is imperative that counter terrorism professionals are able to parallel their efforts in order to continue fighting them even after the territorial defeat of the Caliphate.

The power of norms to sway fused group members

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnifred R. Louis ◽  
Craig McGarty ◽  
Emma F. Thomas ◽  
Catherine E. Amiot ◽  
Fathali M. Moghaddam
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Anthropology ◽  
Normative Systems ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Identity Fusion ◽  
Group Members

AbstractWhitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.

Social context moderates the effects of quest for significance on violent extremism.

2020 ◽  
Vol 118 (6) ◽  
pp. 1165-1187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jasko ◽  
David Webber ◽  
Arie W. Kruglanski ◽  
Michele Gelfand ◽  
Muh Taufiqurrohman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Violent Extremism

Death in the City

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A. Sloan
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Violent Death ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Intimate Friend ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
European Heritage ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

Popular culture has long conflated Mexico with the macabre. Some persuasive intellectuals argue that Mexicans have a special relationship with death, formed in the crucible of their hybrid Aztec-European heritage. Death is their intimate friend; death is mocked and accepted with irony and fatalistic abandon. The commonplace nature of death desensitizes Mexicans to suffering. Death, simply put, defines Mexico. There must have been historical actors who looked away from human misery, but to essentialize a diverse group of people as possessing a unique death cult delights those who want to see the exotic in Mexico or distinguish that society from its peers. Examining tragic and untimely death—namely self-annihilation—reveals a counter narrative. What could be more chilling than suicide, especially the violent death of the young? What desperation or madness pushed the victim to raise the gun to the temple or slip the noose around the neck? A close examination of a wide range of twentieth-century historical documents proves that Mexicans did not accept death with a cavalier chuckle nor develop a unique death cult, for that matter. Quite the reverse, Mexicans behaved just as their contemporaries did in Austria, France, England, and the United States. They devoted scientific inquiry to the malady and mourned the loss of each life to suicide.

New Grounded Feminist Approach to Islam in Indonesia: A Textual Analysis of Rahima and Fahmina’s Publications

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
Nina Nurmila
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Grass Root Level ◽  
Nahdlatul Ulama

This article aims to offer a textual analysis of Rahima and Fahmina’s publications. Rahima and Fahmina are two Non-Government Organizations founded in 2000 by a young generation of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), one of the largest moderate Muslim organizations in Indonesia. There are more similarities than differences between Rahima and Fahmina because the persons involved in the organizations are close friends and, in fact, the same persons even though both are based in two different cities. Since their foundation, both Rahima and Fahmina have published many books and magazines. This article argues that both Rahima dan Fahmina publications offer a new grounded feminist approach to Islam, which counterbalance the dominant male-biased normative approach to Islam in most Muslim societies. These publications are based on their feminist activism and community engagement with the grass-root level of many Nahdlatul Ulama pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools). The topics of their publication cover many current issues such as fiqh of women’s reproductive rights and empowerment, fiqh of the daily life of migrant workers, fiqh of anti-trafficking, prevention of child marriage, violent extremism and religious pluralism. As a result, the progressive nature of their publications negates the existing label of NU as the traditionalist organization.

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