An empathetic approach to youth radicalisation in Europe
During the last decades, we find ourselves at a historical juncture marked by the escalation of ethnocultural and religious tensions in the EU, hit by two substantial crises, namely the global financial crisis and the refugee crisis. The ERC-funded ISLAM-OPHOB-ISM project utilised a single optical lens to analyse the factors and processes behind the radicalisation of two groups of European youths: the natives who support movements labelled as far-right and the migrant-origin self-identified Muslims. Across two interview rounds scheduled in 2020 and 2021, the research team conducted 307 interviews in four European countries: Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Native interlocutors were chosen from middle-sized to large towns away from metropolitan capital cities (Aalst, Dresden, Ghent, Lyon and Rotterdam) and self-identified Muslim interlocutors from capital cities (Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels and Paris). “As a starting point, the project problematised the neoliberal political tendency to criminalise and pathologise radicalisation by reducing the concept to extremism and terrorism,” explains principal investigator Ayhan Kaya. “Contrary to this understanding, many youngsters are prone to non-violent radicalisations resulting from a deeper search for reflexive awareness,” argues postdoctoral researcher Metin Koca.
Understanding reactionary radicalism
According to the findings of ISLAM-OPHOB-ISM, those who feel neglected, excluded, marginalised, alienated and forgotten are likely to manifest a reactionary form of radicalisation that is often exploited by anti-systemic political and societal formations such as right-wing populist parties and movements. One of the most surprising results seems to be that the density of Islamophobic discourse was much less than expected. The focus of the native youths was mostly on the socioeconomic, political, spatial and nostalgic forms of deprivation that they experience in everyday life. “The most effective deradicalisation strategy would be to create programmes that reduce the anger and anxiety caused by marginalising factors like unemployment and discrimination,” suggests postdoctoral researcher Ayşe Benevento. Another remarkable result was the realisation of how much all interlocutors appreciated talking about their everyday lives and communicating with the researchers about the hardships they experience. The latter are mostly related to different forms of intersectional discrimination, labelling, framing, exclusion and humiliation. Both groups of youngsters appreciated the chance to share feelings and perceived discriminations. This led the researchers to initiate an act of active listening by generating the hashtag #LendThemYourEars through which the youngsters could communicate their expressions with the public using the project’s Twitter account.
Solidifying research findings for an effective deradicalisation process
Based on the rich corpus of publications the project has produced, the team will prepare policy recommendations for actors operating at local, national and transnational European levels. One of the most important reasons for radicalisation among youth groups, according to project findings, is the fact that many state actors no longer invest in the formation of cultural, youth and community centres. There is a need for popular culture, arts, music, dance, performativity and sports activities that bring young people together to communicate with each other. They can use these to express their feelings of alienation and structural ‘outsiderism’ not through ontological violence, but through aesthetic forms such as music, dance, graffiti, painting and sports. To this end, ISLAM-OPHOB-ISM aspires to engage civil society organisations, universities, schools and municipalities.
Keywords
ISLAM-OPHOB-ISM, extremism, discrimination, youth radicalisation, far-right, deradicalisation, Muslim youth, European youth, Islamophobic