De-Radicalization of Muslim Communities in the UK
Abstract
This study examines why and how Islamists' message of radicalization spread like a social contagion among UK Muslim communities during the 1990s. The thesis hypothesizes that a small number of Islamists, with smartly contextualized ideas, given a receptive environment, can spread their influence rapidly. Borrowing from Social Movement Theory and other works, this thesis elaborates how, through word-of-mouth and interpersonal communications, a relatively small number of people can successfully initiate a social epidemic of religious extremism. By following simple rules of marketing, Islamists made their message stickier. To counter radicalization, the study suggests a paradigm shift: instead of countering the Islamists on theological grounds, reinvigoration of "family" is proposed as an all-in-one counter-radicalization tool that would remove social strains, hamper Islamists' mobilization mechanisms, and trump their teaching of propagating message based on cultivated familiarity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA501488
Entities
People
- Rehan Mushtaq
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School