Prevalent causes behind religious and political radicalization from group and community perspectives in contemporary France

Absztrakt (kivonat)

My concern throughout my thesis work is in connection with radicalization ostensibly related to the Islam culture and religion in France. I used the attributive of ostensible, as it is debatable what initiates this type of radicalization within the French society. However, the reasons later on, by the majority are still connected to religious extremism and fanaticism. I search for the reasons behind how radicalization occurs and whether religion truly has a role within all this by taking into account the perspectives of groups and communities of French Muslims and the French society, let them be social or political groups, or already radical ones. I study how the question of the Islam religion generally constitutes a fault line in the French society and politics, and how it deepened in the past decades. Even more so, since in the time scope of my interest, which is the 21st century, there was an increased number of assaults against civilians in France that previously had been countered successfully by the French authorities, for more than ten years including the 2000s. Thus, I also scrutinize the factors and conditions that have contributed to the situation of terrorism in the country that I consider to coincide with the highest level of violent radicalization. In addition, inevitably, I examine the nuanced social aspects of radicalization, besides the seemingly simplifying concept of religious jihadism. All in all, I hope to introduce reasons and thoughts within my thesis that make it more comprehensible why radicalization constitutes a major hazard in contemporary France.