Understanding the motives behind Islamist terrorist attacks is not only relevant for the field of politics but preoccupies research within academia. One of the most debated is certainly the role of religion. This thesis addresses this gap by asking the question, what role does religion play in the radicalization processes of Islamist terrorists attacking western targets? It combines an emotional approach to religion, with religiosity as defined by religious practices in everyday life and by the self-perception of individuals themselves. It further argues that when religion is perceived as emotionally meaningful, this results in spiritual selective incentives, individuals perceive as worth engaging in terrorism. Using process tracing and structured focused comparison, it conducts an analysis of the radicalisation processes of three individuals, within a comparative case study design, using autobiographies, court documents, previous case studies and news articles. The results show that the individuals perceived their emotions in a religious context and support is found for the hypothesis that justification for violence emerges out of religious motives. The Thesis concludes that religion does have explanatory power as an independent variable, but causal relationships are complex. This leaves room for further research which focuses more on religion as an independent variable.

In recent years, have the focus on Incels increased due to various deadly attacks that have been associated with extreme misogynistic content. This study aims to discuss current online prevention methods’ applicability with respect to Incels and to comprehend if online prevention methods can mitigate future attacks in Nordic countries. To provide knowledge of current online prevention methods a systematic literature review in accordance with the PRISMA was conducted. Several databases e.g., Google Scholar and PsycINFO were searched for articles published in peer-reviewed international journals. Ten articles which included online moderation measures regarding extremist content and Incels were admitted. Additionally, a non-systematic review was conducted in relation to reports regarding Incels published by Nordic organizations. Four reports were found. The Routine Activity Theory was then applied to the results from the papers found in the systematic and the non-systematic review. One limitation of the review is that only a few articles have been included which makes generalizability difficult. Numerous methods can be applied regarding Incels when it comes to online prevention measures. However, current methods seem to consist of a duplexity, where the moderation methods influence different SoMe platforms, but also create echo chambers on encrypted platforms where an increase of Incel radicalization materializes. To mitigate future attacks the use of proactive online prevention methods, e.g., detection tools and connectivity tools should be used by different platforms and law enforcement, as the capable guardian, to allocate imminent threats from Incels.

How do riots affect civil conflict? The effects of riots on escalation and civil conflict have largely been overlooked in the peace and conflict literature. I argue that this omission is of particular significance because riots could act as a potent escalatory proxy for a government authority and legitimacy crisis, a robustly supported cause of escalation and civil conflict. Drawing on civil conflict theories concerning motivation, feasibility, and contentious politics, the hypothesis as riots increase, the intensity of state-based organized violence increases was developed. To test this hypothesis, a zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis was conducted on 14728 country-month observations from African countries between 1997 and 2020, using riot events and state-based organized violence fatality data and theoretically and empirically motivated controls. Notwithstanding certain research design limitations, the regression analysis and the complementary tests and investigation strategies yielded findings that support the hypothesis and the supposition that riots tend to affect civil conflict by increasing the intensity of state-based organized violence. The novelty of the findings opens up avenues for future research and sheds light on the value of studying lower-level societal violence and minor-scale escalatory dynamics to enhance our collective understanding of civil conflicts.

The gradual disappearance of the so-called ‘alt-right’, caused in part by the gradual deplatforming of its figureheads has created somewhat of a power vacuum, allowing for a new generation of far-right influencers to take over. The Groyper movement, led by 23-year-old Nicholas J. Fuentes, could in this sense be described as one of the successors of the alt-right. The Groypers are youth-led and youth-oriented, insofar as their primary aim is to radicalize – or ‘red pill’ – Generation Z, a strategy outlined both in their speech and their use of social media platforms primarily used by young people, with TikTok being the most notable example. Despite the movement’s relative infancy, it could easily be described as one of the fastest growing far right group in the modern era – in large part due to the perfect storm created by the COVID-19 lockdowns and the Black Lives Matter protests – and has recently begun to spawn culturally distinct offshoots outside of the United States into countries like Canada. This thesis will therefore examine the discursive practices of the Canadian ‘branch’ of the Groyper movement on TikTok in order to identify some of the tactics it uses to facilitate the radicalization of teenagers and young adults by drawing on Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical framework. The findings of this project add to a growing body of research regarding youth-oriented far-right movements, the use TikTok for propaganda purposes, and the broader literature of discourse analysis.

The main purpose of this essay is to investigate the role of teachers of religious education in the proactive work against violent extremism and radicalization. Furthermore, the ambition is to raise awareness of how these five teachers of religious education in the Swedish upper secondary schools and primary schools in the subject of religious studies work with and implement the school's democratic mission, and to find structures to teach about radicalization, fundamentalism, pro-violence extremism and terrorism. To obtain a result, five semi-structured interviews with active religious education teachers in the upper secondary schools and the primary schools were conducted.To show the extent to which the school's democratic mission in the proactive work against radicalization and violent extremism is carried out, the collected empirical material has been analyzed based on Paulo Freire's awareness-raising pedagogy as a theoretical framework which indicates whether the interviewed teachers of religious education work according to what Freire calls the bank view or the liberating teaching. The study shows that all interviewed teachers work according to both these models. The teachers believe that it is inevitable to ignore the teaching of facts but prefer the liberating teaching. This is because all interviewed teachers believe that through dialogues and discussions, a critical thinking is created in the students. Furthermore, it appears that all teachers find it essential to create a good and open classroom climate where there is mutual acceptance of dissent. Thus, a long-term effort to create students as source-critical thinkers is fundamental.

This study assesses the problem of youth radicalization and violent extremism in the northeast region of Nigeria. The study aimed to identify and explain the major factors that make these youths in the region vulnerable to the radical ideologies of Boko Haram, how these factors have interacted and resulted in them being sympathetic to terrorism in the region or being actively involved in the act. With these factors in mind, the study also aimed to critically access the government’s non-militarized response to violent extremism in order to ascertain whether or not these factors that have lured the youths into violent extremism in the first place have been taken into consideration in the design and implementation of such programs. Designed as a case study, the study relies on secondary data for its analysis and finds that poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, the almajeri system of Islamic education, and strong religious beliefs have been major risk factors for radicalization in the region. Also, findings show that the government’s deradicalization programs are flawed in their design and implementation, do not aim to address the root causes of radicalization into extremism, and give preferential treatment to repentant terrorists at the expense of the actual victims. I conclude by arguing that deradicalization in the region is in some way having a counter-effect (serving as an incentive for people to get radicalized into extremism) and also recommend further research on this with a possible comparative focus on other deradicalization programs in the country, past and present.

Syftet med denna översikt var att utifrån en kvalitativ utgångspunkt sammanställa vetenskapliga studier för att klargöra hur incels framställs inom den offentliga debatten och forskning. Detta för att redogöra för hur incels kan kategoriseras och kunna bedöma vem som kan eller ska arbeta med incels. Metoden som valdes var en översiktsstudie, samt en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att sammanställa resultatet. Översikten baseras på sexton vetenskapliga studier samt svensk massmedia, populärkultur samt myndighetsrapporter. Tre teman arbetades fram genom den kvalitativa innehållsanalysen: incels som misogyna terrorister, avhumanisering av kvinnor utifrån radikaliseringsprocessen och kopplingar mellan incels och psykisk ohälsa. Teorier som användes var struktureringsteori samt maskulinitetsteorier. I resultatet framkom att incels hamnar under flera instanser så som socialtjänst, hälso och sjukvård och rättsväsendet beroende på hur de kategoriseras. Studien visar problem som vi anser vara att det i dag inte finns någon given kategorisering förutom incel, vilket gör det svårt att avgöra vilka som ska arbeta med denna problematik. Om incels kan klassas som ett socialt problem hamnar de inom ramen för det sociala arbetet. Men kategoriseras de som terrorister hamnar de i stället inom ramen för rättsväsendet. Att inte ha klara riktlinjer för en grupp med människor och vem som bär ansvaret för dem, gör att de riskerar att “hamna mellan stolarna”, något som kan sluta mycket olyckligt, vilket denna översikt visar. / The purpose of this overview was to compile scientific studies based on a qualitative starting point to clarify how incels are presented in the public debate and research. This is to explain how incels can be categorized and to be able to assess who can or should work with incels. The method chosen was an overview study, as well as a qualitative content analysis to compile the results. The overview is based on sixteen scientific studies as well as Swedish mass media, popular culture, and government reports. Three themes were developed through the qualitative content analysis: incels as misogynistic terrorists, dehumanization of women based on the radicalization process and links between incels and mental illness. Theories used were structuring theory and masculinity theories. The results showed that incels falls into several instances, such as social services, health care and the judiciary, depending on how they are categorized. The study shows problems that we believe are that today there is no given categorization other than incel, which makes it difficult to decide who should work with this problem. If incels can be classified as a social problem, they end up within the framework of social work. But if they are categorized as terrorists, they instead end up within the framework of the judiciary. Not having clear guidelines for a group of people and who is responsible for them, they risk "falling between the cracks", something that can end very unhappily, as this overview shows.

A holistic approach to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) in the Internet Environment and Social Media is essential. This thesis focuses on gender and context consideration in online approaches to CVE through use of a literature review and samples of online counter-narrative campaigns. This has led to determination of the extent to which gender and context have been considered in online approaches to CVE and identifying what they mean for CVE online, while highlighting full participation of women in online approaches that are aimed at countering violent extremism as well as the critical role of contextual factors in online approaches to CVE. In addition, the thesis shows that more research is needed to fill the gaps identified. These gaps are the role of women in online CVE campaigns as well as contextual factors that are associated to violent extremism. More so, online narratives should be all rounded since this study found that CVE narratives have failed to identify a predictable psychosocial trajectory to explain de-radicalization processes that are crucial to disengage radicals.

It is important to direct resources to effective evidence- and value-based counter-radicalization strategies, especially within prisons. With the increasing threat ofviolence and terror from various violent extremist groups, such as Daesh, thefocus on prisons should be intensified. While radicalization within prisons was nota significant problem a decade ago, the new recruitment strategies from e.g.Daesh now pose a new challenge for prisons. This thesis identifies contemporaryliterature on radicalization, deradicalization, and violent extremism within aprison context. From this seven recurrent themes were identified: overcrowding,religious chaplains, sectioning, risk assessment, monitoring and supervision,rehabilitation programs and education of staff. This was then used to develop anassessment model, which was based on the Canadian Risk-Need-Responsivitymodel’s three core principles, for evaluating and conducting counterradicalizationstrategies. The assessment model was then used as a framework fora comparative analysis of the Danish and Swedish Prison and Probation Services’counter-radicalization strategies within prisons. The results show that bothcountries adhered to a degree to the assessment model and current literaturewithin the field. The results further reveal that there is a lack of empiricalevidence and data on radicalization and counter-radicalization within prisons, andthat the data available is somewhat outdated.

Radicalization is as a formidable challenge for several nations. While radicalization continues to flare across the world, empirical evidence and consensus regarding its determinants remain scarce. This cumulative dissertation aims to contribute to understanding the determinants of radicalization based on three research papers. The first paper undertakes a systematic review of the existing scientific literature on radicalization. The second paper empirically tests the predictive power of the most plausible factors identified in the systematic review. The third paper empirically investigates the existence of non-linearities in the relationship between radicalization and socioeconomic factors.:1. Introduction 2. Understanding the Determinants of Radicalization: A Systematic Review 3. An Empirical Assessment of the Determinants of Radicalization: Evidence from North-Western Pakistan 4. Socioeconomic Factors and Radicalization in Pakistan: A Non-Linear Exploration 5. References