Pressure to prove: Muslim converts’ activism and radicalism mediated by religious struggle and punishing Allah reappraisal

Abstract

ABSTRACT Muslim converts are overrepresented in Islamist terrorism compared to non-convert Muslims – Why? To explore possible explanations, we probed aspects of radicalism and Islamic religiousness within relevant populations. Specifically, we surveyed 356 American Muslim adults, of which 177 were self-identified converts, with the Activism and Radicalism Intention Scale (ARIS: Moskalenko & McCauley [2009]. Measuring political mobilization: The distinction between activism and radicalism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 21(2), 239–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550902765508) and the Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR: Abu Raiya et al. [2008]. A psychological measure of Islamic religiousness: Development and evidence for reliability and validity. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18(4), 291–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508610802229270). We used the ARIS because terrorism is rare, but radicalism and activism are more common. Activism and radicalism engagement may correlate with terrorism engagement, though they are neither necessary nor sufficient antecedents. We found that converts, compared to non-converts, demonstrated higher intent to engage in activism and radicalism on the ARIS, and that they experienced greater Religious Struggle and lower Fear of Punishing Allah Reappraisal (PAR) on the PMIR. We also found that both of these PMIR factors partially mediated the relationships between conversion and activism/radicalism. We propose that this is because converts feel a pressure to prove their faith, especially when they believe Allah punishes unfaithfulness. We discuss these findings in light of current psychology and political mobilization literature and then offer suggestions for future research on the relationships between conversion, radicalism, and religious experiences.