Attacks on academic freedom in Turkey have become increasingly systematic in recent years and thousands of academics have been dismissed. This study reflects on the effects of this worsening repression through interviews with academics in the social sciences, both those dismissed and those still active in their profession. Although the dismissed academics are socially in a very precarious position, they are continuing their scholarly activities in alternative, underground forms. This resistance stands in contrast to the accommodation and self-censorship that seem, according to the interviewees, to prevail in university departments.
This study is based on interviews with three former Swedish jihadists, and it uses cognitive dissonance theory to analyze how their motivations for jihad changed-from the early stages of radicalization to fighting as part of a jihadist group and finally leaving jihad. It argues that cognitive dissonance is a causal mechanism, alternative to empathy and collective relative deprivation, that can explain how individuals with collective identities can be motivated to opt for jihad. For none of the interviewees did fundamentalist Islam provide a gateway into jihadism, nor did they seem to use Islam as a mere justification for violent behavior. Cognitive dissonance can also shed light on why some jihadists have not been susceptible to further radicalization by accepting even more radical ideas.
Jihadism is a complex social phenomenon that changes people, but not always uniformly. This article argues that cognitive and behavioral radicalization can be seen as a discursive journey or jihadiship involving (e)merging ideas, problems, and solutions that change with encounters with new circumstances-both material and immaterial. The differences observed between various generations of jihadists are one manifestation of this complexity. Especially in a jihadi group, the processes of radicalization are bound to continue and take new forms, compared with those experienced in the West. Another example of the complexity of jihadiship is that not only can radical ideas lead to radical behavior, but also radical behavior can increasingly give rise to radical ideas in jihadi groups.
ARTICLE HISTORYWhy do some Muslims residing in the West become radicalized, harboring extremist beliefs and a desire for fast and fundamental sociopolitical change (i.e., cognitive radicalization) and even resorting to violence to achieve this change (i.e., behavioral radicalization)? 1 Can knowledge of this radicalization process help us understand the prospects and challenges of deradicalization when fighters return from foreign conflict zones? Personal and collective grievances, networks and interpersonal ties, political and religious ideologies, and enabling environments and support structures have been associated with radicalization. 2 Still, we know little about Islamic radicalization in the West and the results of various studies are sometimes conflicting, often as concerns the role of education, class, family situation, and prior criminality. 3 Even less is known about why people become deradicalized. 4 The possible variables associated with radicalization are many. One group of scholars, with roots in French sociology, concentrates on sociological background factors such as globalization and the dissolution of traditional communities and identities. From this perspective, radicalization takes place when individuals try to reconstruct their identities in a hostile and perplexing world. In particular, second-generation Muslim immigrants can experience a double sense of non-belonging, if they do not feel part of their parents' communities in their home countries and experience socioeconomic exclusion and racism in the West. 5 This can lead them to opt for an identity involving membership in the abstract community of the ummah, the global Muslim nation, whom the jihadist group claims to represent.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.