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The Next Gen Academic Survival Workshop Series: Early Career Researcher Safety, Wellbeing and Ethics

This workshop focusses on the phenomenon of extremism and especially online extremism in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. This workshop brought together academics researching extremism and Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) interventions in sub-Saharan Africa where both Islamist militant groups and far-right and alt-right groups operate. The workshop explored how extremist groups and individuals use the internet in the region, how counterterrorism/P/CVE strategies are designed to address this problem and the challenges of implementing these strategies bearing in mind global and local politics and the local governance systems in place.

Chair: Miraji H. Mohamed, Swansea University.

Panellists:

1. Prof Christi van der Westhuizen, Nelson Mandela University.

2. Prof Freedom C. Onuoha, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

3. Dr Halkano Abdi Wario, Egerton University.

4. Dr Christopher Anzalone, Marine Corps University (The views expressed here do not represent those of the U.S. Marine Corps, Department of Defense, or any part of the U.S. government)

The focus of this workshop was individuals’ experiences of, and engagement with, extremist ideas and beliefs – both jihadist and far-right – in a variety of different settings. Panellists explored the role of video games, music, humour and the occult in normalising extremism and assessed the extent to which this plays a role in radicalisation trajectories and desensitises individuals to violence. The reverse process – in which extremist actors adopt mainstream culture to expound their message – was also considered.

Panellists:

Dr Suraj Lakhani (University of Sussex)

Dr Weeda Mehran (University of Exeter)

Prof Jonathan Pieslak (The City College of New York, CUNY)

Dr Ashton Kingdon (University of Southampton)

VOX-Pol: An Introduction

This dissertation is a critical discourse analysis of how anti-Islamic rhetoric in prominent online forums is articulated within the context of popular discourses of multiculturalism and tolerance. According to Melanie McAlister, perceptions of Muslims within the United States are unique in comparison to other minority groups in that they are almost entirely mediated, whether it is the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, or the various Muhammad cartoon controversies. While much work has been done analyzing how Islam and Muslims are mediated in popular film and television, very little attention has been given to how these perspectives are mediated through the Internet. Using Erving Goffman’s theory of performativity and Kristine Fitch’s notion of persuadable, I examine how both prominent bloggers and pseudonymous commentators work in a “backstage” context to bring Islamophobic norms and premises within the sphere of acceptable opinions for the “front stage” of mainstream media discourses. In particular, I examine how these discourses have evolved over the past few years on three prominent weblogs: the anti-jihadist Little Green Footballs, the liberal-atheist advocacy blog One Good Move, and the popular news aggregate Fark. In light of increasing evidence that weblogs exert a high level of influence over popular media discourses disproportionate to their readership, these websites offer a glimpse “backstage” into how contemporary American discourses on Islam and Muslims are articulated across a broad array of political perspectives, particularly in relation to norms and premises regarding multiculturalism, tolerance, and freedom of expression. While Islamophobic rhetoric has become firmly embedded within discourses of the American Right, each of the three sites examined shows a steady integration of anti-Islamic perspectives within the American Left. Leftist anti-Islamic discourses are frequently articulated within the context of general anti-religious sentiment, misanthropy, and a belief that the values of “the Islamic world” are inherently incompatible with the liberal, democratic, and multicultural values of “the West.” While by no means universal, these perspectives have become sufficiently common, recognizable, and sensible to be granted the status of persuadable within these particular web forums, which in turn helps to move them into the realm of popular American cultural persuadable.

Research on jihadist online propaganda (henceforth JOP) tends to focus on the production, content and dissemination of jihadist online messages. Correspondingly, the target of JOP – that is, the audience – has thus far attracted little scholarly attention. This article seeks to redress this neglect by focusing on how audiences respond to jihadist online messaging. It presents the findings of an online pilot survey testing audience responses to clips from English-language ISIS videos. The survey was beset at every stage by ethical, legal and practical restrictions, and we discuss how these compromised our results and what this means for those attempting to do research in this highly sensitive area.