Religious radicalization: social appraisals and finding radical redemption in extreme beliefs

Psychological Normality or Abnormality: A Case Study on Salafi-Jihadists in the Middle-East

The present study investigated Salafi-Jihadists in terms of mental health. The participants included 12 Salafi-Jihadists living in border areas of Iran, Kurdistan, selected using a purposeful sampling method. This primarily phenomenological case study gathered data, using open-ended interviews, field observations and in-depth clinical interviews. Results indicated that the participants reported no long-standing or acute mental or personality disorder. While they demonstrated abnormalities in their thought process and cognition, they were not severe enough to constitute symptoms of a mental disorder. The results indicate that situational and group factors, in conjunction with identifiable cognitive distortions, may play a more decisive role in fundamentalist radicalization than personality characteristics and mental disorders. Due to discrimination, feelings of oppression, cognitive distortions, and wrong attitudes toward other religious schools, some Muslims have decided to join Salafi-Jihad groups in order to feel a sense of belonging and identity.

Unfairness in Society and Over Time: Understanding Possible Radicalization of People Protesting on Matters of Climate Change

In this manuscript, we introduce a theoretical model of climate radicalization that integrates social psychological theories of perceived unfairness with historical insights on radicalization to contribute to the knowledge of individuals’ processes of radicalization and non-radicalization in relation to climate change. We define climate radicalization as a process of growing willingness to pursue and/or support radical changes in society that are in conflict with or could pose a threat to the status quo or democratic legal order to reach climate goals. We describe how perceptions of unfairness can play a pivotal role in processes of climate change related radicalization. Without taking any position or judgment regarding climate concerns and associated actions, we suggest that although these behaviors drive many people to participate in peaceful climate protest, they may also lead others to radicalize into breaking the law to achieve their climate goals, possibly in violent ways. This process of climate radicalization, we argue, can be driven by people perceiving certain situations to be blatantly unfair. Specifically, we discuss how radical attitudes and behaviors can be products of perceived unfairness stemming from the past, the future, the immediate social environments of perceivers, as well as those that are spatially distant from them. We further argue that because radicalization processes are shaped by an interaction between individuals and movements, on the one hand, and societal actors and developments, on the other, they tend to develop in non-linear and dynamic ways. We therefore propose that climate radicalization is a (1) dynamic, contingent, and non-linear process, often of an escalating (and sometimes de-escalating) kind, (2) that develops over time, (3) through various interactions between individuals and their contexts, and (4) in which people and groups move back and forth from peaceful protest, through disobedient and unlawful methods, to violent actions. Implications, strengths, and limitations of our model are discussed.