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  • whywefightpreprint (2)

    Rights statement: Accepted for publication in Religion Compass

    Submitted manuscript, 271 KB, PDF document

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    Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lee, B. (2016) Why we fight: Understanding the counter-jihad movement. Religion Compass, 10: 257–265. doi: 10.1111/rec3.12208 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12208/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

    Accepted author manuscript, 219 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC-SA: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

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Why we fight: understanding the Counter-Jihad Movement

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>10/2016
<mark>Journal</mark>Religion Compass
Issue number10
Volume10
Number of pages9
Pages (from-to)257-265
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date21/10/16
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This survey article deals with a network that can be loosely described as the ‘Counter Jihad Movement’ (CJM). CJM activists are a loose collection of bloggers, political parties, street movements, think tanks, campaign groups and pundits across several countries, all united by the shared belief that, to some degree, the ‘Muslim world’ is at war with the ‘West’. Overall, the CJM shares a great deal with right wing extremism more broadly. However, the movement is varied enough that not all components sit easily alongside traditional conceptions of right wing extremism. Occasionally the CJM have been indirectly implicated in violence. In July 2011, 77 people, the majority members of the left-wing Workers Youth League, were murdered in Norway in attacks carried out by Anders Behring Breivik. Breivik attempted to justify his attacks in a compendium of political thought that drew heavily on the writings of CJM sources. This article attempts to provide an overview of the CJM and highlight some of the key research debates in the area, including the potential rhetorical relationship between state-backed counter terrorism and the CJM, links to violence, and the similarities and contrasts between the CJM and traditional far-right narratives.

Bibliographic note

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lee, B. (2016) Why we fight: Understanding the counter-jihad movement. Religion Compass, 10: 257–265. doi: 10.1111/rec3.12208 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12208/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.