‘ISIS is not Islam’: Epistemic Injustice, Everyday Religion, and Young Muslims’ Narrative Resistance

Abstract

Powerful narratives that invoke religious concepts—jihad, Sharia, shahid, Caliphate, kuffar, and al-Qiyāmah—have accompanied jihadi violence but also inspired robust counter-narratives from Muslims. Taking a narrative criminological approach, we explore the rejection of religious extremism that emerges in everyday interactions in a religious community under intense pressure in Western societies. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 90 young Muslims in Norway, we argue that young Muslims suffer epistemic injustice in their narrative exclusion from the mainstream and assess the narrative credibility they try to maintain in the face of marginalization. We suggest that young Muslims’ religious narratives reject a mainstream characterization of Islam as essentially a religion of aggression and simultaneously join forces with that mainstream in seeking the narrative exclusion of the jihadi extremists.

Can social bonds and social learning theories help explain radical violent extremism?

“…The correlations we found, we believe, open up for interesting examinations, such as the role of relative socio-economic status among radical criminals in Nordic welfare states. The role of peer groups in encouraging violence and the social dynamics of radicalization influence violent extremism, and this differs from the peer groups of individuals who do not become physically violent (Sandberg & Colvin, 2020). Related questions concern the role of criminal history.…”

“…Recent work on related questions have highlighted the Nordic relevance of these issues. The overlap between street crime, violence and terrorism, requires an interdisciplinary approach that includes political science, religious studies, and criminology (Sandberg & Colvin, 2020;Sunde et al, 2020). Does the Nordic context, with its encompassing welfare states, strengthen social bonds and conventional behaviour, or is the marginalization of ethnic minorities simply different from the US?…”

A farewell to the lone hero researcher: team research and writing

“…Sveinung Sandberg organized a large study of young Muslims in Norway and views of religious extremism, embedded within criminology (e.g. Sandberg & Colvin, 2020;Mohamed & Sandberg, 2019;Sandberg & Andersen, 2019). Research assistants were recently graduated master's students from different academic disciplines with expertise in Islam.…”

Corona crimes: How pandemic narratives change criminal landscapes

“… Clifton and Van De Mieroop (2016 : 7) argue that master narratives are flexible and may be used for different purposes, and conclude that people tend to be oriented toward master narratives “in one way or other”, by, for example, negotiating with them ( Plummer, 2019 ), or opposing them in counter-narratives ( Bamberg and Andrews, 2004 ). Counter-narratives are “stories that challenge or oppose dominant stories, either in mainstream social or in subcultural contexts” ( Sandberg and Colvin, 2020 : 4), and these may include components of master narratives as part of their narrative resistance ( Andrews, 2002 ). The main difference between counter- and negotiated narratives is that counter-narratives repudiate and argue with the dominant narrative, while negotiated narratives develop “weapons to resist while not challenging the existing order” ( Plummer, 2019 : 15).…”