House of War. Islamic Radicalisation in Denmark Marco Goli & Shahamak Rezaei
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The Denmark School House of War Islamic Radicalisation in Denmark Marco Goli & Shahamak Rezaei Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation (CIR) Department of Political Science Aarhus University, Denmark CIR January 2010 The Denmark School House of War Islamic Radicalisation in Denmark Marco Goli, Associate Professor Metropol – Copenhagen University College & Shahamak Rezaei, Associate Professor Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University Research report prepared for the Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation (CIR) Department of Political Science Aarhus University, Denmark January 2010 Islamism and Radicalisation – the Denmark School The ambition of the Denmark School is to remedy the fragmentation between different fields of re- search in Islamism. The Denmark School wants to explore the phenomena of ‘Islamism’ in its different manifestations and to highlight the mechanisms of radicalisation processes among Muslim youth in Europe. One of the innovative approaches is the linkage between ‘soft security’ and ‘hard security’. While other projects mainly focus on terrorism, this project first of all focuses on Islamism. The identi- fication of Islamism requires a distinction between three possible phases: 1) ideology, 2) movements and 3) political regimes. The study of Islamism in international relations is usually limited to treating only one aspect of Islam- ism as a transnational actor, namely terrorism and the corresponding anti-terror measures. But Islamist ambitions and strategies are expressed through a number of other means, such as foreign policy, boycotts, crises, strategic alliances and perhaps even the acquisition of WMD. These must be mapped in order to provide an empirical basis for studying contemporary Islamist world views and conceptions of international relations. Mehdi Mozaffari Head of the Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation (CIR) www.cir.au.dk © CIR and the authors Published January 2010 Printed at the Department of Political Science Aarhus University Cover printed by Vester Kopi, Aarhus ISBN: 978-87-92540-08-9 Published by: The Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation c/o Department of Political Science Bartholins Allé 7, building 1332 8000 Aarhus C Denmark The Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation (CIR) is pleased to present the second research report on Islamic radicalisation in Denmark. The project has been con- ducted by Marco Goli, associate professor at Metropol – Copenhagen University College and Shahamak Rezaei, associate professor at the Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark. This project is part of a more comprehensive study with the same overall theme in several middle-size European cities: Lille (France), Leicester (UK), Parma and Verona (Italy) and Aarhus (Denmark). The other projects will be published as they are completed. For the sake of harmonisation, CIR organized meetings between the researchers to discuss and prepare the practical questions related to the process of investigation. At these meet- ings, the participating researchers coordinated their research and elaborated a common interview guide. It is important to stress the independent character of these investigations. The projects have been carried out in accordance with the standards for good research practice, and the Centre has in no way interfered in the research process. In this delicate and highly sensitive field of research, carrying out interviews is a difficult task and the researchers have faced various obstacles during the process. The completion of the investigations has taken many months. The interviews have mainly involved three different groups: Young Muslims, religious leaders and social workers who work with activities and issues in relation to Muslims and immigrants on a daily basis. The reports were finished during the autumn of 2009 and were submitted to an interna- tional committee of experts for evaluation. Based on the comments of this committee, the researchers revised their reports. I should like to thank the members of the evaluation committee for a wonderful cooperation. Finally, it should be mentioned that the reports exclusively reflect the findings of the re- searchers and do not necessarily express the views of CIR. Comments to the reports are welcome. Happy reading! Mehdi Mozaffari Head of CIR Reports from CIR: House of War. Islamic Radicalisation in Denmark Marco Goli and Shahamak Rezaei January 2010 Radicalization among Young Muslims in Aarhus Lene Kühle and Lasse Lindekilde January 2010 Acknowledgments We owe a deep debt of gratitude to CIR (Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisa- tion at Aarhus University) for their financial support, especially to the Head of the Centre, dr.scient.pol., Professor Mehdi Mozaffari, Aarhus University, Department of Political Science. Special thanks are also extended to CATINÉT Research which was in charge of conduct- ing the survey Data collection, as well as our entire participant respondents in the survey, and interviewees participating in the qualitative interviews without whom, this study would not have been possible. A special thank to dr.scient.pol. Flemming Mikkelsen at CATINÉT Research for his comments throughout the process of development of the ques- tionnaire. Thanks also go to dr.scient.pol., Professor Peter Nannestad, Aarhus University, Professor Ole Borre, Aarhus University and Professor Donatella della Porta, European University Institute for their professional guidance. Thanks also go to our research team research assistant, Svend Møballe, for his comments and guidance in computing the statistical data, and Sille Lundfos Thuesen for her excel- lent and dedicated contribution in collecting and analysing qualitative data. We also thank research assistants, Maya Hossain-Engberg, Nathalia Pischur Kjær, Dennis Hansen, Nicolas Christensen, Rikke Hove, Milad T. Kashani, Eric Maganga & Stine M. G. Jakobsen all from Roskilde University for assisting us throughout the project's different phases with their dedication, integrity, commitment and nonetheless, flexibility in regard to the project. Special thanks are extended to our colleagues Annette Andersen and Ida Warburg, De- partment of Political Science and CIR, Aarhus University who helped us with the final proofreading and page setup. Thanks are also extended to our respective institutional affiliation, Roskilde University & Metropol – Copenhagen University College for hosting the project and providing us with the facilities needed to conduct this project. Copenhagen, January, 2010 Marco Goli Shahamak Rezaei vii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... vii Islamic radicalisation among Muslim youth in Denmark. Motivation, values and behaviour ............................................................................................................................... 13 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 13 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 13 2. Methodology, Data Collection and the Data ...................................................................... 18 3. The Data – a General Overview............................................................................................. 22 4. The concept of Islamism ......................................................................................................... 32 4.1 Radical Muslims and others ............................................................................................... 33 4.2 Secular, Fundamentalist, Islamist, Radical Muslim ........................................................ 38 4.3 A common understanding? ................................................................................................ 41 5. Results ........................................................................................................................................ 42 5.1. The Construction of the group ‚Radical Muslims‛ ....................................................... 43 5.2. A Group-specific Data Overview ..................................................................................... 56 5.3. Hypotheses .......................................................................................................................... 66 5.4. The Case of Aarhus – A Medium-sized European City .............................................. 100 5.5 The Character of Radicalisation in Practice ................................................................... 113 6. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 117 References .................................................................................................................................... 131 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 135 Appendix 1 Telephone calls – Overview.............................................................................. 135 Appendix 2 Postcodes and Groups ....................................................................................... 136 Appendix 3 Logistic Regression analysis of selected variables (N=1,113) -