This is a continuation of Grant N00014-14-1-0477 Emerging Trends in Muslim Discourse: The Rise of Religious Intolerance, Sectarianism and Shariah Consciousness
Abstract
The performer will employ a combination of qualitative and computational methods to explore and map discourse systems promoting sectarian conflict and Shari ah mandates and the ways in which others promoting religious pluralism and limited application of Shari ah oppose them. It will also develop more advanced computational tools and analytics for identifying latent classesof individuals who hold these views and for tracking, visualizing, and predicting their evolutionary phases. It will also identify general and nationally, culturally and religiously specific strategies for crafting more effective communications strategies for government and military personnel engaging with Muslim societies. Research will be conducted in five countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Turkey and the United Kingdom, in which there is well documented concern with sectarian and Shari?ah issues.Work will include the collection and analysis of documents, audio and video recordings, observation of public events such as Friday sermons, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with public figures such as religious, communityand political leaders, and web-mining with automated discourse analysis, modeling and analytics to capture a wide swath of relevant data and generate strong inferences as to their meanings. The performer will use a new set of transdisciplinary tools and concepts to explain (i) how subgroups understand social, political and religious realities, (ii) why they choose to support or resist extremist sectarian and Shari ah based discourse, (iii) how they organize themselves, and (iv) why and how their beliefs, goals, attitudes and behaviors change over time.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612386
Entities
People
- Mark Woodward
Organizations
- Arizona State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy