News and Analysis on Islam in Europe and North America
At the end of March, a teacher at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire was suspended following a religious studies lesson in which the teacher showed cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Despite the school issuing a statement of apology, parents have protested against the use of offensive cartoons . The situation has generated widespread
The path into terrorism in the name of Islam is often described as a process of radicalisation. But to be radical is not necessarily to be violent. Violent radicals are clearly enemies of liberal democracies, but non-violent radicals might sometimes be powerful allies.
This report is a summary of two years of research examining the difference between violent and non-violent radicals in Europe and Canada. It represents a step towards a more nuanced understanding of behaviour across radicalised individuals, the appeal of the al-Qaeda narrative, and the role of governments and communities in responding.
The British think tank Demos has published a report on radical Islam, the bottom line of which is that it can be defeated by making it boring or ridiculous. The report, entitled “The Edge of Violence: A Radical Approach to Extremism”, examined the differences between violent radicals and non-violent radicals, finding that violent radicals had