Panel Discussion: Examining the Extreme: Radicalisation among Muslim Youth - Causes and Roots

Wed, 20 May 2015 18:30 in Discussion Forums

Where: Dialogue Society, 402 Holloway Road, London, N7 6PZ
Date: 20th May 2015
Time: 18:30

Speaker:

Prof Roger Griffin, Oxford Brookes University
Dr Stefano Bonino, Durham University
Dr Ismail Sezgin, Centre for Hizmet Studies

Abstract

Recent terrorist attacks in places as far apart as France, Tunisia, Pakistan, and Kenya, together with the flow of young people born and raised in the UK to the ranks of ISIS over the past year, have once again brought the topic of religious extremism to the forefront of public consciousness. This panel discussion aims to offer a timely discussion of the causes and roots of radicalisation among Muslim youth in light of recent terror attacks in countries across the world, as well as the rise of the so-called Islamic State across swathes of Syria and Iraq.

Questions

What has been the effect of terrorist attacks and religious extremism among youths on relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK and beyond?
What factors (social, political, economic, ideological, cultural) seem to contribute most significantly to people adopting extremism?
What are the roles of perceived grievances?
What is the role of “charismatic recruiter”?

Biography of Roger Griffin

Roger Griffin is widely acknowledged to be one of the world's foremost experts on the socio-historical and ideological dynamics of fascism, as well as the relationship of various forms of political or religious fanaticism, and in particular contemporary terrorism, to modernity. He began teaching at what was then Oxford Polytechnic over forty years ago, and has played an active part in its evolution into what is regularly voted the UK's outstanding New University in the country, working alongside one of the more successful teams of historians in England in terms of the quality of its research output 'per head' according to the RAE/REF of 2001, 2008, 2014. As an extension and application of his academic research into the social dynamics of extremist ideology and fanatism under the impact of modernity he has made a number of contributions outside academia to a humanistic understanding of terrorist radicalization and the identification of the processes involved in deradicalisation. Meanwhile his theories of fascism and of fascism's relationship to religion, ulltranationalism, totalitarianism, aesthetics and modernism are widely used in Eastern Europe and have attracted interest as far away as South Korea, China and Japan.

Biography of Stefano Bonino

Stefano Bonino is a Research Associate in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University. His research spans across criminology, sociology and politics and focuses on: extremism, terrorism and organised crime; counter-extremism/terrorism and democracy; Muslims in the United Kingdom (identity, community, discrimination and integration); ethnicity, culture and religion. He is currently working on a monograph on Muslims in Scotland for Edinburgh University Press, and has taught, published and presented research both in the United Kingdom and abroad, and has contributed to various media outlets, such as BBC, Times Higher Education, The Conversation and OZY. He regularly writes analyses and opinion pieces on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for La Razón.

Stefano holds a BA from the University of Turin, and both an MSc and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He is an Associate of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and a Member of the European Society of Criminology, the European Sociological Association, the Muslims in Britain Research Network, Mensa International and Intertel.

Biography of Ismail Sezgin

Ismail Mesut Sezgin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Marmara University in Istanbul and gained his Doctorate from the Institute for Spirituality, Religion and Public Life at Leeds Metropolitan University. His thesis was titled Moral Responsibility in Contemporary Islam. His research interests include ethics, Islam, Political Islam, Sufism and Turkish Politics. Sezgin is the Executive Director of the Centre for Hizmet Studies.