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RadicalisationResearch.org Academic Launch
16 February 11
RadicalisationResearch.org‘s aim is to provide policymakers, journalists, and anyone whose work utilises concepts such as radicalisation, fundamentalism or extremism, with easy access to high-quality academic research on these controversial issues. By taking a non-partisan approach and providing access to the best, including the latest, research we hope to challenge ungrounded assumptions that may obscure a clear understanding of violent extremism, especially where that is associated with ‘Islamicism’.
Many of the pieces of research included show how and why recent uses of the term ‘radicalisation’ can be misleading, especially when that term is used to refer to a simple process of ‘brainwashing’ which drives individuals along a conveyor belt from ‘normal’ to ‘violent’. There is growing evidence that there is no necessary connection between ‘extremist’ views and the resort to violence: other factors are involved. This also has implications for ‘de-radicalisation’.
The website pays particular attention to religious violence, and to the post-9/11 concern with Muslim extremism. Its primary aim is to inform the debates related to these topics. Some of the research presented also undermines the idea that there is something unique about Islam in relation to violent extremism. There are many comparable forms of both religious and secular violence, and historical and geographical comparisons are explored in several of the articles and books discussed on this site. Such comparative work is important in helping to clarify the current situation.
The site only recently went live and we are looking for academic feedback and suggestions of material in order to develop it for full launch Spring 2011. Please contact the editor Mat Francis.