Discover Your Inner Strength: A Positive Psychological Approach to Bolster Resilience and Address Radicalization

Mark Dechesne,Jamal Ahajjaj

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.614473

Abstract

The article reports initial attempts to evaluate a new positive psychological approach to bolster resilience among Muslims in the Netherlands. The approach uses Quranic texts and principles from mental contrasting and implementation intentions (MCII) to encourage Muslims in the Netherlands to reflect in groups on appropriate responses to challenges they are facing. The participants are inspired by Quranic texts and encouraged to write responses to specific challenges in the form of IF-THEN rules and to practice these IF-THEN rules for several weeks. Two studies indicate that this approach increases personal growth initiative. The implications of these findings for the MCII literature and prevention/countering violent extremism are discussed.

Highlights

Prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE) has become hallmark principles of contemporary counterterrorism and counterradicalization strategy in Europe and in the United States
We argue that current PVE/CVE practice derives in part from the assumption of the presence of a threat associated with Islam, which is increasingly difficult to identify as a broader share of the Muslim community becomes implicated in P/CVE programs
We did not find effects of the procedures on emotional wellbeing and sociability, we did register tentative evidence that addressing challenges faced by Muslims in the Netherlands by using Quranic texts as a source of inspiration to define implementation intentions to achieve a desired stated, as our approach aimed to achieve, contributes to greater positive growth initiative among participants who had participated in the critical meeting and practices that followed the meeting relative to participants who had not attended

Summary

Introduction

Prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE) has become hallmark principles of contemporary counterterrorism and counterradicalization strategy in Europe and ( decreasingly) in the United States. P/CVE goes beyond military effort and law enforcement to prevent the spreading of violence-propagating ideology and build communal resilience and prevent societal rift. The Countering Violent Extremism Taskforce of the Department of Homeland Security (2020) describes P/CVE as “proactive actions to counter efforts by extremists to recruit, radicalize, and mobilize followers to violence. CVE actions intend to address the conditions and reduce the factors that most likely contribute to recruitment and radicalization by violent extremists.”. By focusing on the stages that precede and follow terrorist acts, CVE implies a broadening of counterterrorism and counterradicalization policy to include a focus on the environments and communities, and on the ideologies, from which radicalization is considered to emanate.

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