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Cumulative Extremism: a Misguided Narrative?

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Cumulative Extremism: a Misguided Narrative? Cumulative extremism: a misguided narrative? Comparing interactions between anti-Islamists and radical Islamists in Norway and the UK Sofia Slang Lygren Master’s Thesis in Peace and Conflict Studies Department of Political Science UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Spring 2019 Cumulative extremism: a misguided narrative? Comparing interactions between anti-Islamists and radical Islamists in Norway and the UK I © Sofia Slang Lygren 2019 Cumulative extremism: a misguided narrative? Sofia Slang Lygren http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Reprosentralen, University Of Oslo Word count: 30 543 II Abstract Recently, scholars, policy-makers and experts have applied the term cumulative extremism to describe an escalating conflict between radical Islamist and anti-Islamist groups in Britain. This thesis aims at reaching a more nuanced understanding of the interactions between the two adversary groups, identifying the underlying processes that drive the relationship. I propose an alternative concept to cumulative extremism that I have coined Reciprocal Intergroup Radicalisation (RIR) that I argue better captures the interactions between the adversary groups. The research question asks which mechanisms fuel or contain reciprocal intergroup radicalisation (RIR), and what conditions facilitate or obstruct these mechanisms from unfolding. Drawing from the social movement literature, I have developed a theoretical framework consisting of six mechanisms that either fuel or contain radicalisation of interactions between anti-Islamists and radical Islamists. I have combined a comparative analysis with process tracing, with Britain serving as a positive case and Norway as a negative case. Similar anti-Islamist and radical Islamist social movement organisations emerged around the same time in Britain and Norway, yet no violent interactions occurred in the latter case. The aim is therefore to understand this discrepancy. I collected a wide-ranging source material through document analysis and combined these sources with four semi-structured expert interviews. In the analysis, I demonstrate that the level of RIR is conditioned by a number of mechanisms that all interact together. I found that the level of repression, the absence of a radical right party, organisational strength, the organisations’ enemy images, and the narrative of the media all impact RIR to some extent. These findings have important implications for how law enforcement, the media, and policy- makers should approach the two opposing groups in order to avoid counter-productive measures that fuel rather than contain the conflict. III IV Acknowledgements This thesis marks the end of some unpredictable and exciting months. This time has been much easier than they could have been thanks to the special people around me. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Jacob Ravndal, for all our insightful and guiding discussions. Thank you for never lowering the bar of expectations, continuously challenging me academically and always having faith in this thesis. You have been an excellent mentor. Next, I would like to give a big thanks to my informants who gave me invaluable insights. Your time and contributions are much appreciated. And to my procrastinators in crime, I thank you for markedly improving my chess-and- quiz abilities during the lunch breaks. Thank you, Solveig, for your patience and support. You have shifted my focus when the nerves have crept in on me, and made me laugh during the most stressful times. I also owe a big thanks to my parents for your unconditional support in whatever I do – big or small. Last but not least, a big thank you to Ferdinand, Ingeborg, Tamta, and all the other editors who have proof-read this thesis from beginning to end. Any errors found in this thesis are my own. V VI Table of contents Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Research design ...................................................................................................................... 2 1.2. Key findings and implications .............................................................................................. 4 1.3. Disposition of the thesis ......................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................................... 6 2.1. Cumulative extremism and its conceptual shortcomings ................................................... 6 2.2. Reciprocal intergroup radicalisation ................................................................................... 8 2.2.1. Radicalisation.................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.2. Intergroup ......................................................................................................................... 9 2.2.3. Reciprocal ....................................................................................................................... 10 2.3. Social movement theory ...................................................................................................... 11 2.3.1. What is a social movement? ........................................................................................... 11 2.3.2. Violence .......................................................................................................................... 12 2.4. What makes anti-Islamists and radical Islamists social movements? ............................. 13 2.4.1. Radical Islamism............................................................................................................. 13 2.4.2. Anti-Islamists .................................................................................................................. 15 2.5. Reciprocal intergroup Radicalisation and social movement theory ............................... 16 2.6. Political opportunity structures .......................................................................................... 18 2.6.1. Repression activating isolation or moderation ................................................................ 18 2.6.2. Strong radical right parties and the pressure cooker theory ............................................ 20 2.7. Framing ................................................................................................................................ 21 2.7.1. Adversarial framing and mirroring ................................................................................. 21 2.7.2. The media: RIR as a self-fulfilling prophecy ................................................................. 22 2.8. Organisational resources ..................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3 Research Method .............................................................................................................. 26 3.1. Research question ................................................................................................................ 26 3.2. Case selection ....................................................................................................................... 26 3.3. Mechanisms, indicators and process tracing ..................................................................... 28 3.4. Data collection and research ethics .................................................................................... 30 3.4.1. Document analysis .......................................................................................................... 31 3.4.2. Semi structured interviews .............................................................................................. 32 3.4.3. Coding ............................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 4 Reciprocal Intergroup Radicalisation in Britain and Norway ..................................... 35 4.1. Britain ................................................................................................................................... 35 4.1.1. The Bakri Network ......................................................................................................... 35 4.1.2. The English Defence League .......................................................................................... 36 4.1.3. Reciprocal intergroup radicalisation in Britain ............................................................... 37 4.2. Norway .................................................................................................................................. 39 4.2.1. The Norwegian Defence League .................................................................................... 39 4.2.2. Profetens Ummah ........................................................................................................... 40 4.2.3. Reciprocal intergroup radicalisation in Norway ............................................................. 41 Chapter 5 Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 43 5.1. Organisational and human resources ................................................................................ 43 5.1.1. The Norwegian Defence League and its ten, leaderless disciples .................................. 44 5.1.2. Anti-Islamist
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