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Title: Transnational Islamic activism and radicalization : patterns, trends, and prognosticators.

Abstract

The research described in this report developed the theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding, recognizing, and anticipating the origins, dynamic mechanisms, perceptions, and social structures of Islamic social reform movements in the Muslim homeland and in diaspora communities. This research has revealed valuable insights into the dynamic mechanisms associated with reform movements and, as such, offers the potential to provide indications and warnings of impending violence. This study produced the following significant findings: (1) A framework for understanding Islamic radicalization in the context of Social Movement Theory was developed and implemented. This framework provides a causal structure for the interrelationships among the myriad features of a social movement. (2) The degree to which movement-related activity shows early diffusion across multiple social contexts is a powerful distinguisher of successful and unsuccessful social movements. Indeed, this measurable appears to have significantly more predictive power than volume of such activity and also more power than various system intrinsics. (3) Significant social movements can occur only if both the intra-context 'infectivity' of the movement exceeds a certain threshold and the inter-context interactions associated with the movement occur with a frequency that is larger than another threshold. Note that this is reminiscent of, and significantlymore » extends, well-known results for epidemic thresholds in disease propagation models. (4) More in-depth content analysis of blogs through the lens of Argumentation Theory has the potential to reveal new insights into radicalization in the context of Social Movement Theory. This connection has the potential to be of value from two important perspectives - first, this connection has the potential to provide more in depth insights into the forces underlying the emergence of radical behavior and second, this connection may provide insights into how to use the blogosphere to influence the emergent dialog to effectively impact the resulting actions taken by the potential radicals. The authors of this report recognize that Islamic communities are not the only source of radicalism; indeed many other groups, religious and otherwise, have used and continue to use, radicalism to achieve their ends. Further, the authors also recognize that not all Muslims use, or condone the use of, radical behavior. Indeed, only a very small segment of the Muslim communities throughout the world use and/or support such behavior. Nevertheless, the focus of this research is, indeed, on understanding, recognizing, and anticipating the origins, dynamic mechanisms, perceptions, and social structures of Islamic radicalism.« less

Authors:
; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
993923
Report Number(s):
SAND2009-0325
TRN: US201101%%124
DOE Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE; 99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; SOCIOLOGY; HUMAN POPULATIONS; ARAB COUNTRIES; SABOTAGE; PATTERN RECOGNITION; SOCIAL IMPACT; ORIGIN; PUBLIC OPINION; POPULATION DYNAMICS

Citation Formats

Colbaugh, Richard, Engi, Dennis, LaViolette, Randall A, and Spomer, Judith E. Transnational Islamic activism and radicalization : patterns, trends, and prognosticators.. United States: N. p., 2010. Web. doi:10.2172/993923.
Colbaugh, Richard, Engi, Dennis, LaViolette, Randall A, & Spomer, Judith E. Transnational Islamic activism and radicalization : patterns, trends, and prognosticators.. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/993923
Colbaugh, Richard, Engi, Dennis, LaViolette, Randall A, and Spomer, Judith E. 2010. "Transnational Islamic activism and radicalization : patterns, trends, and prognosticators.". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/993923. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/993923.
@article{osti_993923,
title = {Transnational Islamic activism and radicalization : patterns, trends, and prognosticators.},
author = {Colbaugh, Richard and Engi, Dennis and LaViolette, Randall A and Spomer, Judith E},
abstractNote = {The research described in this report developed the theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding, recognizing, and anticipating the origins, dynamic mechanisms, perceptions, and social structures of Islamic social reform movements in the Muslim homeland and in diaspora communities. This research has revealed valuable insights into the dynamic mechanisms associated with reform movements and, as such, offers the potential to provide indications and warnings of impending violence. This study produced the following significant findings: (1) A framework for understanding Islamic radicalization in the context of Social Movement Theory was developed and implemented. This framework provides a causal structure for the interrelationships among the myriad features of a social movement. (2) The degree to which movement-related activity shows early diffusion across multiple social contexts is a powerful distinguisher of successful and unsuccessful social movements. Indeed, this measurable appears to have significantly more predictive power than volume of such activity and also more power than various system intrinsics. (3) Significant social movements can occur only if both the intra-context 'infectivity' of the movement exceeds a certain threshold and the inter-context interactions associated with the movement occur with a frequency that is larger than another threshold. Note that this is reminiscent of, and significantly extends, well-known results for epidemic thresholds in disease propagation models. (4) More in-depth content analysis of blogs through the lens of Argumentation Theory has the potential to reveal new insights into radicalization in the context of Social Movement Theory. This connection has the potential to be of value from two important perspectives - first, this connection has the potential to provide more in depth insights into the forces underlying the emergence of radical behavior and second, this connection may provide insights into how to use the blogosphere to influence the emergent dialog to effectively impact the resulting actions taken by the potential radicals. The authors of this report recognize that Islamic communities are not the only source of radicalism; indeed many other groups, religious and otherwise, have used and continue to use, radicalism to achieve their ends. Further, the authors also recognize that not all Muslims use, or condone the use of, radical behavior. Indeed, only a very small segment of the Muslim communities throughout the world use and/or support such behavior. Nevertheless, the focus of this research is, indeed, on understanding, recognizing, and anticipating the origins, dynamic mechanisms, perceptions, and social structures of Islamic radicalism.},
doi = {10.2172/993923},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/993923}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010},
month = {Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2010}
}