Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Muslims and Extremism

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Book cover Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives

  • 34 Accesses

Abstract

In explaining the nature of extremism in the context of the experiences of Muslim minority groups, a whole host of factors require deep consideration. The dominant view concentrates on how regressive politicization based on Islamic interpretations can contribute to violence, but few consider the wider social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics of Islamist extremism and terrorism. This chapter provides a holistic, analytical perspective focusing on Islamism in the West in particular, where immigration and settlement patterns, especially in the postwar context, are important starting points in this study. Due to these migration patterns, and questions of racism and discrimination in the host society, issues relating to intergenerational change and identity politics and how it leads to an Islamism based on resistance over time can be better understood. It also reveals the significance of current manifestations of Islamophobia and its impact on counter-terrorism policy and wider societal racism, where Islamophobia is the normalization of institutionally, ideologically, culturally, and politically bounded anti-Muslim prejudice. In conclusion, Muslim extremism in the West is almost entirely explainable as a function of structural and cultural disadvantage, where the political process has failed for young Muslims who are the sons and grandsons of immigrant groups how the violence exercised by these angry young men in, is the main, the realization of an accumulated series of exclusions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aarts, P., & Roelants, C. (2016). Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in Peril. London: Hurst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abbas, T. (Ed.). (2017). Muslim diasporas in the west. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abrahamian, E. (2003). The US media, Huntington and September 11. Third World Quarterly, 24(3), 529–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed, A. S., & Donnan, H. (Eds.). (1994). Islam, globalisation and postmodernity. Basingstoke: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ali, T. (2003). The clash of fundamentalisms: Crusades, jihads and modernity. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amiraux, V. (2005). Discrimination and claims for equal rights amongst Muslims in Europe. In J. Cesari & S. McLoughlin (Eds.), European Muslims and the secular state (pp. 25–38). London: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anwar, M. (2008). Muslims in Western states: The British experience and the way forward. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 28(1), 125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, H. (1970). On Violence. Boston, MA: Harcourt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, G., & Edwards, P. (2016). Rethinking ‘radicalisation’: Microradicalisations and reciprocal radicalisation as an intertwined process. Journal for Deradicalisation, 12, 255–281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borum, R. (2011). Radicalization into violent extremism I: A review of social science theories. Journal of Strategic Security, 4(4), 7–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cesari, J. (2004). When Islam and democracy meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chomksy, N. (2016). Powers and prospects: Reflections on human nature and the social order. London: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalacoura, K. (2006). Islamist terrorism and the Middle East democratic deficit: Political exclusion, repression and the causes of extremism. Democratization, 13(3), 508–525.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El Hamel, C. (2002). Muslim diaspora in Western Europe: The Islamic headscarf (hijab), the media and Muslims’ integration in France. Citizenship Studies, 6(3), 293–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, M., & Pollard, J. (2016). The ideologues and ideologies of the radical right: An introduction. Patterns of Prejudice, 50(4–5), 327–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrera, M. (2014). Ideology, parties and social politics in Europe. West European Politics, 37(2), 420–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fetzer, J. S., & Soper, C. J. (2005). Muslims and the state in Britain, France and Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, M. (2013). The roots of extremism: The English Defence league and the counter-Jihad challenge. London: Chatham House Briefing Paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, M. J., & Heath, H. (2016). The 2016 referendum, Brexit and the left behind: An aggregate-level analysis of the result. The Political Quarterly, 87(3), 323–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halliday, F. (2003). Islam and the myth of confrontation: Religion and politics in the Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hans-Georg, B. (2015). The two faces of radical right-wing populism in Western Europe. The Review of Politics, 55(4), 663–685.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbert, J. (2015). Testosterone: Sex, power, and the will to win. Oxford: OUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, P. E. (2007). Young people, masculinities, religion and race: New social geographies. Progress in Human Geography, 31(2), 163–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horgan J (2014) The psychology of terrorism. Abingdon Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Küçükcan, T. (2004). The making of Turkish-Muslim diaspora in Britain: Religious collective identity in a multicultural public sphere. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 24(2), 243–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lentin, A., & Titley, G. (2012). The crisis of ‘multiculturalism’ in Europe: Mediated minarets, intolerable subjects. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(2), 123–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mabon, S. (2016). Saudi Arabia and Iran: Power and rivalry in the Middle East. London: IB Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maher, S. (2017). Salafi-Jihadism: The history of an idea. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandeville, P. (2009). Muslim transnational identity and state responses in Europe and the UK after 9/11: Political community, ideology and authority. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35(3), 491–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meer, N., Dwyer, C., & Modood, T. (2010). Embodying nationhood? Conceptions of British national identity, citizenship, and gender in the “veil affair”. The Sociological Review, 58(1), 84–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, G., & Poynting, S. (Eds.). (2016). Global Islamophobia: Muslims and moral panic in the west. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. F. (2012). Muslim integration into Western cultures: Between origins and destinations. Political Studies, 60(2), 228–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ostrand, N. (2015). The Syrian refugee crisis: A comparison of responses by Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 3(3), 255–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peach, C. (2009). Slippery segregation: Discovering or manufacturing ghettos? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35(9), 1381–1395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peach, C., & Glebe, G. (2005). Muslim minorities in Western Europe. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 18(1), 26–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pew Research Center. (2016). U.S. Muslims concerned about their place in society. In But continue to believe in the American dream. Washington DC: Pew Research Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (2006). Parallel lives? Challenging discourses of British Muslim self-segregation. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24(1), 25–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pisoiu, D. (2015). Subcultural theory applied to jihadi and right-wing radicalization in Germany. Terrorism and Political Violence, 27(1), 9–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poynting, S., & Mason, V. (2007). The resistible rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001. Journal of Sociology, 43(1), 61–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roy, O. (2010). Holy ignorance: When religion and culture part ways. London/New York: Columbia University Press/Hurst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saull, R. (2015). Capitalism, crisis and the far-right in the neoliberal era. Journal of International Relations and Development, 18(1), 25–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer, S., & Wagner, C. (2011). Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia - new enemies, old patterns. Race & Class, 52(3), 77–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, A. P. (2013). Radicalisation, De-radicalisation, counter-radicalisation: A conceptual discussion and literature review. The Hague: International Centre for Counterterrorism.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumann, C. (2007). A Muslim ‘diaspora’ in the United States? The Muslim World, 97(1), 11–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sedgwick, M. (2010). The concept of radicalization as a source of confusion. Terrorism and Political Violence, 4(4), 479–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaffer, G. (2008). Racial science and British society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheridan, L. P. (2006). Islamophobia pre– And post–September 11th, 2001. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21(3), 317–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverstein, P. A. (2005). Immigrant racialization and the new savage slot: Race, migration, and immigration in the new Europe. Annual Review of Anthropology, 34(1), 363–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyrer, D., & Sayyid, S. (2012). Governing ghosts: Race, incorporeality and difference in post-political times. Current Sociology, 60(3), 353–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weller, P. (2013). A Mirror for our times: The Rushdie affair and the future of multiculturalism. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiktorowicz, Q. (2004). Islamic activism: A social movement theory approach. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Policy Institute. (2011). Anatomy of Islamophobia. World Policy Journal, 28(4), 14–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, The Hague, Netherlands

    Tahir Abbas

Authors
  1. Tahir Abbas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tahir Abbas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, University of North Florida Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Ronald Lukens-Bull

  2. Arizona State University, TEMPE, AZ, USA

    Mark Woodward

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Abbas, T. (2021). Muslims and Extremism. In: Lukens-Bull, R., Woodward, M. (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73653-2_33-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73653-2_33-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73653-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73653-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation