Reconstructing Radicalisation – A Risk Analysis Perspective of Radical Attitudes in a Swedish Muslim Sample

Abstract: Radicalisation is an extremely popular topic in the terrorism discourse, yet it has seen extensive criticism for being a blurry concept. The present study evaluates the conceptual strength of radicalisation and reconstructs it with a focus on the empirical study of radicalisation from a risk perspective. Framed as a major risk factor in Islamic radicalisation, radical attitudes were examined in a sample of seventy-seven Muslim students from Malmö University. The study employed a cross-sectional survey research design. A frequency analysis found that up to 37.7% of participants expressed some form of radical attitudes, whilst a multiple regression analysis identified activism, gender, social isolation, vulnerability, and mental health as statistically significant risk factors. Religiosity and religious fundamentalism were not shown to be significant. It is argued that future studies must focus on the pursuit of further empirical data to elevate radicalisation to a more robust construct, and that multinational collaborations situating radicalisation in different cultural contexts may be key for the long-term health of the field.