Abstract

GARCIA, Sergio; COTOBAL, Víctor Valentín  and  JIMENEZ RAMOS, María. An attempt to explain Islamist violent radicalization in Spain. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.2, pp.141-164.  Epub Jan 12, 2024. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v45n2/95035.

This paper is the first of a series of papers that aim to address Islamist violent radicalization from different perspectives: the nature of violent radicalization in the context of Spain, a comparison between European, North American, and Indian violent radicalization; the need to refine territorial radicalization indexes within the context of preventing violent radicalization and the relation between Islamist violent radicalization and other forms of violent radicalization in Europe. This set of articles builds upon the general theoretical framework set by the author on two previous works (García-Magariño, 2018; 2019a). These works are framed under the known conception of three layers of micro, meso, and macro factors contributing to violent radicalization processes ( Jordan, 2009; McCauley; Moskalenko, 2017). The paper starts by defining Islamist violent radicalization, then it explores different theoretical explanations, and finally proposes an explanatory hypothesis that is tested, on the one hand, against data proceeding from different institutional sources in Spain and, on the other hand, some initial conversations that will become life stories and in depth interviews to Spanish security officials and people who whether radicalized or lived very close to others that did. The article also includes a review of the legal framework that regulates the activities classified as terrorism in Spain and, although it focuses on Jihadist terrorism, it covers other forms of terrorism that have affected Spain in the last decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Keywords : extremism; Jihadism; moral structure; radicalization; social control.

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