Analysis On The Causes Of British Muslim Radicalisation

After the London bombing in July7th,2005, Britain is faced with a growing threat of homegrown terrorism. Thereafter, Britain has witnessed a lot of terrorist attacks which have a devastating impact on its national security and social stability. Behind those terrorist activities, most of the plotters and attackers are British Muslims who are the descendants of earlier Muslim immigrations and grow up and receive education in Britain. The commonplace of these incidents is the fact that they share the Muslim identity and are perceived as normal before turning into terrorists.The thesis selects British Muslim as the subject and probes into the causes of Muslim radicalisation in Britain and how the British government carries out its counter-radicalisation strategy by the methods of documentation analysis and case study. The thesis starts from exploring several concepts related to radicalisation and puts forward the definition and theory itself on the basis of current academic study on radicalisation. The thesis contends that radicalisation is a process in which grievant individuals may accept or support violent extremism and gradually fall into the realm of terrorism. As to the theory, the thesis explores the causes of radicalisation on three levels:macro-level of world dynamics and national policy; meso-level of social milieu; and micro-level of individual causes.Before exploring the causes of British Muslim radicalisation, the thesis first reviews the immigration history of British Muslim and analyzes its current situation. The early Muslim immigration dates back to Britain’s colonial era. After the World War Ⅱ, Britain witnessed a large flow of Muslim immigrants who came from Asia and Middle East. The first Muslim generation lived and worked at the bottom of British society. Then the thesis analyzes the current demographic, ethnic, and geographic situation of British Muslim. The priority of early Muslim immigrants in Britain is living and integration in the British society. But as the situation changed, British Muslim has transferred into the largest ethnic minority in Britain, willing to pursue their rights and identity, which set the backgrounds of radicalisation. The causes of Muslim radicalisation are categorized into three levels. On macro-level, the causes are world Muslim dynamics and Britain’s foreign policy. On meso-level, the causes are islamphobia, negative impacts of media, and frustrated political participation. On micro-level, the causes are advanced education, employment, identity, and internet. The interaction of these causes finally leads to the radicalisation of individuals. To deal with the threat of radicalisation, the British government carries out the counter-radicalisation strategy which has three objectives:challenging the ideology that supports terrorism and those who promote it; protecting vulnerable people; supporting sectors and institutions where risks of radicalization exist. Based on the theoretical framework, the thesis also analyzes Britain’s counter-radicalisation strategy on three levels and argues that despite the current success of Britain’s counter-radicalisation strategy there are still some drawbacks concerning its overstated focus on Muslims which may cause counterproductive impacts, overlook of far-right extremism, and impediment of community integration.