Cartoons as bridge builders: dialoguing on radicalization with the “suspect community”

Abstract

Terrorist attacks and the departure of “foreign fighters” to conflict areas have created a hasty security approach towards radicalization in many countries; similarly in Belgium, the country under scrutiny in this contribution. Implemented policies impact society by imposing a dominant security frame. This study centers around conversations with members of the “suspect community,” young people with a migration background in Molenbeek, Verviers, and Antwerp. Cartoon elicitation was used in in-depth interviews and focus groups to understand their experiences with the dominant framing of radicalization and us-versus-them dynamics of the constructed out-group. Framed by media, policy makers and academia as “suspects”, members of this silenced overrepresented minority are dual distancing themselves from the stigmatizing radicalization-label and perceived radicalized individuals. The young people contest the radicalization stigma, labeled as harmful for themselves and their peers, while they accept the radicalization paradigm in reference to people outside of their inner circle.