British politics at the start of the 21st century provide a good setting for examining factors associated with mobilisation for extremist politics. This thesis is concerned with the relationship between individuals' preferences, their local setting and political behaviour. With focus on two outcomes - participation in urban rioting and support for a far right party - this thesis is divided into two parts and consists of five research papers addressing different aspects of mobilisation. In the first part we focus on urban disorder and examine police arrest records from the London riot of 2011. Much of the sociological literature has focused on variation in rioting across cities; here we examine variation within London by mapping the residential addresses of 1,620 rioters onto over 25,000 neighbourhoods. Our findings challenge the orthodoxy that rioting is not explained by deprivation or by disorganisation. Furthermore, we present evidence suggesting the importance of political grievances, in particular relations with the police, and examine the process of mobilisation to show that it was aided by spatial proximity and social similarity. In the second part we look at factors associated with engagement with far right politics. We use individual attitudinal data from the British Election Study to examine whether concerns over immigration are associated with the actual experience of immigration in one's place of residence. The results suggest that local setting does play some role, although individual factors seem to be more important. Secondly, we use leaked British National Party membership list to map 12,536 far right supporters onto over 200,000 neighbourhoods in Britain. Our findings underline the importance of a larger geographic context, where some spatial configurations present particularly fertile grounds for the far right; we also report the relative unimportance of cultural threat and significance of the social distance. Lastly, we question the recently advocated 'legacy effect' and suggest that white flight mechanism may possibly be an alternative way of thinking about organisational continuity.

The presented graduation thesis deals with radical right wing parties in the political system of the Czech republic. The far-right wing parties occured in the area of the present Czech republic in the second half of 19th century. In the following years their number and importance fluctuated. In the last twenty years the Dělnická strana appeared. This party was the most important far-right wing party since 1989 until present days. Dělnická strana was founded in 2002 and cancelled was by the Supreme Administrative Court eight years later. Many far-right wing parties acted in Czech republic besides this one after 1989. None of them, including Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti, which is the successor party of Dělnická strana, had ever achieved such popularity and elective results.

This thesis deals with the issue of extremist manifestations of youth and the impact of these occurrences on the societal climate in the class. The first part of this thesis defines the terms and analyzes the current situation of the problem. It displays the intolerant attributes typical to extremist attitudes, the main current extremist streams and ways of disseminating extremist ideas. The aim of the second part is a case study conducted on the sample of a class. At first there is a selection of a sample class and a choice of the methodology of the study. Subsequently the thesis explains the obtained results. These results are then analyzed, interpreted and compared with expectations.

This master thesis focusses on the issues of sanctioning antidemocratic political parties in the Czech Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the discussion of the expert public in reaction to practice of the Supreme Administrative Court or Federal Constitutional Court. It is a comparative paper, therefore all issues are analysed from the Czech as well as the German point of view and the comparative chapter summarizing main coherences and differences always follows. The thesis is divided into six parts, which aim to map the matters related to banning political parties. Firstly, the theses is focused on the regulation of political parties in the Czech Republic and in the in the Federal Republic of Germany to provide theoretical backgrounds for better understanding of the topic. Consequently, both the introduction into problematic of the concept of defending democracy and the analysis of its demonstration in the constitutional law of the Czech Republic and of the Federal Republic of Germany follow. Moreover, substantive law aspects as well as procedural law aspects of dissolution of political parties are introduced ending up with comparison of both. The thesis contains also detailed insight into Czech case regarding Dělnická strana and in German case the NPD...

Islaam as a world religion is most often associated with terrorism and numerous bombings and conflicts around the globe. While, Islaam does not encourage these actions there exists movements within the Muslim community which use violence as a means of political expression similar to the early extremist Khawaarij sect who abused the concept of takfeer. Many modern day ideologues seem to adopt the main tenets of the Khawaarij creed and as a result exhort and carrying out actions of violence under the guise of Islaam. In addition, Western media, secularists, and United States policy also appears to have a direct role in fostering the growth of these movements. Therefore, there is a need for further study into the ideological roots of these groups, their actions, and how societies can look for solutions to combat their ideals before they evolve into terrorist actions. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M. A. (Islamic Studies)

Sects as a Threat Sects are both a social and religious phenomenon in contemporary society. We often hear about religiously motivated violence. Therefore, the phrase Sects as a threat is not a very suprising term. Often, there appears a situation in which sects threaten not only their members but also the whole society. Based on that, it is important to characterize them and determine where religiously motivated violence or extremism could be seen. In the introduction of the theoretical work I mention the basic terminology, explain the nature of religion and differentiate the basic religious faiths. Next, the new religious movements follow. Related to that is the legislation of churches and religious societies, their registration, rights, obligations and the like. Followingly, the religious movements which could represent a potential threat or raised public awareness by their controversial affairs are described. Despite the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses are a registered church, the thesis includes also them. I have mentioned them because the majority of respondents believe that they actually are a sect. A similar situation is with Satanism. Even they have church associations. At the same time, there sometimes happen situations, when extremist groups refer to satanism, for example after an act of violence. This phenomenon appears in far more religious movements. The next step is to sketch the negative influences of new religious movements on both an individual and society as a whole. After that the term Sect is described in detail. This part contains information on the features of particular sects, psychical manipulation methods and the ways of recruiting new members. Nevertheless, even the characteristics of sect leaders is included. What we cannot forget is the prevention of affecting of these dangerous groups and also help for the sect members who want to escape them. In the last part of the theoretical work I concentrate on The Czech Republic as a state. I describe the attitude of the state to churches and religious societies. Next, I aim at the religion policy of the state and how different govermental and nongovermental organizations participate in the problem. The thesis also deals with the rate of participation of different governmental offices, such as Home office and Culture office and also with the rate of participation of Police. The main goal of the thesis is the evaluation of the activity and threats of religious groups active both in the area of The Czech Republic and foreign countries as well. I have also dealt with a statistic qantitative research strategy using the questionaire research in both non-professional and professional public. The questions were asked in the areas possibly threatened by sects and mainly concerned the security risks of The Czech Republic related to the activities of sects. Next, the statistic evaluation of differences between non-professional and professional public awareness of the issue followed. The thesis also dealt with the analysis of available literature sources on the issue of sects. The result of the research shows a considerable difference between non-professional and professional public awareness. The thesis could be possibly used as a summary of possible risks originating in sects and can also serve as a source of information of the problem of religious groups.

Uppsatsen handlar om att pröva en teori som menar att en hög internetanvändning kan leda till ökad polarisering och därmed bli ett hot mot demokratin genom att ta bort debatt, diskussion och konsensus. Polariseringen ska framkomma genom att internetanvändarna har större möjlighet att förtränga information och åsikter som strider mot ens egna. Samtidigt ska dessa individer även ha större möjlighet att gå med i grupper som endast innehar likasinnade människor. Genom the daily me skapar människor även sig ett ramverk över hur deras vardag ska se ut gällande vilken information som de tar del av. Uppsatsen prövar huruvida samhällets åsikter är mer extrema i Norge och Polen år 2010 och år 2016 bland dem som använder sig av internet ofta kontra sällan, vilket det enligt teorin borde vara. Metoden för att testa detta utgår från en kvantitativ statistisk analys där variabler ställs mot varandra för att identifiera ett samband. Resultaten av uppsatsen visar på att det finns ytterst små mönster av en ökad polarisering bland de som använder internet ofta. Jag argumenterar för att resultaten visar inte på en tillräckligt stor polariseringstrend bland de som använder internet ofta. Värt och nämna är att på grund av att en stor del av kapitel 5 (resultat och analys) består av diagram och tabeller så kommer det att finnas en del större mellanrum mellan vissa delar. Utan dessa mellanrum hade till exempel en halva av en tabell hamnat på en sida och andra halvan på den andra.

In 2001, George W. Bush, the former president of the United States, declared war on terrorism after the 9/11 attack at the World Trade Centre in New York. Since then, terrorism and terrorist attacks have perceived to be rather frequent and the problem of radicalization has become a new phenomenon in societies, especially the western societies. Therefore, in 2014, the Swedish government decided to create a National Strategy Against Violent Extremism (NSAVE) which was released in 2016. In this strategy, it is argued that the main responsibility of the preventative-work against radicalization is directed at the local levels in Sweden, which is the municipalities. The research on the implementation of the strategy is however limited to non-existing. Therefore, this study is conducting a review of the national strategy and two case- studies with a qualitative approach to get an understanding of how municipalities are working with prevention of radicalization and violent extremism as well as how the national strategy is implemented at the local levels. The data collection that is used is semi-structured interviews with professionals working within two municipalities in Sweden. The findings show that the two municipalities are working with prevention of radicalization but use different strategies. The result is analyzed with the theoretical approach of inclusion and exclusion. The result shows that both municipalities are using the inclusive and development approach in their strategies. The last part of the thesis argues for recommendations in future work on national, regional and local levels as well as direct recommendations towards the two municipalities.

CVE is complex. It requires combatting the narratives and ideology of many extremist groups around the globe, constructing environments with appealing alternatives to extremism, and most importantly, sensitivity to the variety of circumstances in which CVE takes place to effectively battle the root causes of extremism. Constructing a complete CVE effort thus requires a great variety of skills, coordinated to efficient implementation. Despite notional commitment, U.S. CVE abroad lacks interagency coordination. JIATF-S offers a strong model of interagency coordination, from which lessons may be applied to the formation of an interagency CVE effort. Interagency coordination would bring extensive expertise and resources to bear on CVE operations.

My Thesis is aimed at the life of the Romanies in Czech society. The topic was chosen intentionally as relations between the Roma minority and the members of the major society belongs to current topics, and although the Romanies have already been living at our territory for several centuries they still remain unknown for most of the inhabitants. The aim of the Thesis was particularly to collect information on how the Romanies themselves perceive thein life in our society and to open discussion about different topics then e.g. crime or poverty. The scope was influenced by my owen work with Romay people and the isme is really familiar to me. The Thesis is dividend into two parts. The theoretical part describes the history of the Romanies, thein present situation in the Czech republic and deals with topics like racism and extremism. The practical part is based on qualitive and quantitative research. The first part interprets data obtained within a field research in selected location of České Budějovice. The research was performed in the formo f semi-controlled interview in May and June. The sekond part is based on the technice of content analysis of a primary document. A Romany magazíne Romano hangos was chosen for the purpose of the research. The selection set of my analysis consists of all the 2008 issues of Romano hangos magazíne. An article is the basic selection unit. To qualify for inclusion into the content analysis an article had to contain communication of how the Romanies perceive thein life in our society. The research results confirm that Romanies still feel like foreigners in our society.