Abstract
Violent radicalisation is currently one of the most pressing global problems. Accordingly, the intention of this paper is to discover the views on terrorism in the name of Islam held by Islamic religion teachers in Spain and to analyse the preventive socio-educational measures that they propose, employing a mixed methods approach with a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Most of the teachers point to a poor knowledge of Islam among the young, especially as regards to the concept of jihad, as the main reason behind this phenomenon. The second-generation immigrants among the teachers attach great importance to possible identity crises as a factor that makes the young more vulnerable to violent radicalisation. The most frequently mentioned social measure is fostering the integration of Muslims, thus creating a sense of belonging to their country of residence. They recommend preventive educational strategies that, far from focusing on detecting possible violent extremists, place the accent on teaching the fundamentals of the Islamic religion in order to provide young people with the tools that they need to challenge violent ideologies.
Highlights
Terrorists attacks carried out in the name of Islam have increased exponentially over the past few years, becoming one of the most worrying social problems at a global level (Cottee 2019; Tankel 2019).following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, there was growing concern about the compatibility between Islam and the West (Hussain and Read 2015), an issue that has only been exacerbated by the so-called ‘domestic terrorism’, namely, acts of violence committed by individuals born and bred in the country in question, especially since the 2005 terrorist attacks in London (Crone and Harrow 2011)
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, there was growing concern about the compatibility between Islam and the West (Hussain and Read 2015), an issue that has only been exacerbated by the so-called ‘domestic terrorism’, namely, acts of violence committed by individuals born and bred in the country in question, especially since the 2005 terrorist attacks in London (Crone and Harrow 2011)
According to the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN 2016), these include, among others, individual, social and political reasons. These factors have taken the shape of a series of “indicators of radicalisation” in some antiterrorist strategies (Dzhekova et al 2017)
Summary
Terrorists attacks carried out in the name of Islam have increased exponentially over the past few years, becoming one of the most worrying social problems at a global level (Cottee 2019; Tankel 2019).following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, there was growing concern about the compatibility between Islam and the West (Hussain and Read 2015), an issue that has only been exacerbated by the so-called ‘domestic terrorism’, namely, acts of violence committed by individuals born and bred in the country in question, especially since the 2005 terrorist attacks in London (Crone and Harrow 2011). According to the Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN 2016), these include, among others, individual (exclusion, anger and frustration, feelings of injustice, etc.), social (real or perceived discrimination, poor education, etc.) and political (complaints against Western foreign policy) reasons. These factors have taken the shape of a series of “indicators of radicalisation” in some antiterrorist strategies (Dzhekova et al 2017).
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