The Narrative Foundations of Radical and Deradicalizing Online Discursive Spaces

A Comparison of the Cases of Generation Islam and Jamal al-Khatib in Germany

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3462292
AutoresRami Ali (0009-0009-4534-6244, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Özgür Özvatan (0000-0001-5148-3004, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, autor de correspondencia), Linda Walter (European University Viadrina)
Año2023
Volumen14
Número2
Páginas167
Fecha de publicación2023-01-29
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditorialMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel14020167
OpenAlexW4318475599
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas53

Radical/extremist Islamist actors use social media to disseminate uncompromising stories of monist religious political orders and identities. As a reaction, counter-movements to online Islamist radicalism/extremism emerged in Western societies (and beyond), while uncertainty about effective outcomes remains widespread. In a bid to understand how inclusionary and exclusionary discursive spaces are created, we ask: How do some Muslim actors create discursive spaces open to self-reflection, pluralism and liberal-democratic principles, while others construct illiberal, particularistic and non/anti-democratic spaces? To respond to this question, we compare two contrasting storytellers, one who agitates for exclusionary Islamist radicalism/extremism (Generation Islam) and one who offers inclusionary prevention and deradicalization work against that (Jamal al-Khatib). We draw on novel narrative approaches to the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), via which we compare text-level and context-level narratives disseminated about three Muslim-related crises: the racist terrorist attacks/genocide to represent the national, European and global level. Our two-layered, DHA-inspired narrative analysis illustrates that, at the level of text, narrative persuasion varies between both contrasting actors. While Jamal al-Khatib disseminates persuasive stories, Generation Islam is much less invested in narrative persuasion; it seems to address an already convinced audience. These two text-level strategies reveal their meaning in two antagonistic narrative genres: Jamal al-Khatib's "self-reflexive savior" creates an inclusionary discursive space represented in a self-ironic narrative genre, while Generation Islam's "crusading savior" manufactures an exclusionary discursive space represented in a romance featuring a nostalgic return to the particularistic Islamic umma

Art · Islam · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Persuasion · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · History · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Media, Religion, Digital Communication · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology