Religion, Education and Extremism: a conceptual paper

• In Event: Roundtable Session 6
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Religion, Education, Security, and Understanding

Proposal

Relevance to theme: Globalization and international migration have caused increased diversity in the world. Empirical studies show that population diversity leads to conflict through several mechanisms (Arbatl et al, 2015). Contemporary conflicts are both intranational and international. With diversity in societies the focus has shifted from race/ethnicity to religion, and religion is now being racialized. This is primarily because Islam is associated with extremism even though in contemporary society all major religions (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist) have turned to traditional religions to justify their militancy (Jeurgensmeyer, 2017).
Currently, extremism is a pressing problem and since the 9/11 attacks in the US by Islamic terrorists, extremism has been framed narrowly as religious extremism. At the global level, the push for Western secular values (separation of church and state) is on the one hand inconsistent with interpretations of some religious ideologies such as Islamism (highly politicized version of Islam) (Hamod, 2016) which clash with religious and cultural identities (individual and group). On the other hand, factions of other religious groups have been involved in domestic extremist violence involving gay bars and abortion clinics, so that in the US for example, there have been many more bombings due to Christian theocracy than Muslim (Jeurgensmeyer, 2017).
Increasing violence in the world - many of them perpetrated by youth – pose a tremendous challenge to societal institutions such as the school. Building on literature on extremism, especially religious extremism and the media attention which students are increasingly exposed to on hate speech, fake news and propaganda by various religious groups, this paper asks why Combating Violent Extremism (CVE) and Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) have not become targeted educational programs in educational systems in North America. Many countries in Europe have education in their national prevention strategies taking advantage of the formal education system where children are socialized and develop their worldviews.
The objective of this conceptual paper is to explore the complex nexus of education, religion, and extremism and the implications for educational programs. Education can be used to combat religious extremism, but is also used very successfully by terrorist and religious groups to indoctrinate children and youth with their ideologies. Historically, education has been used for ideological purposes by political and religious groups. What is new, however, is the recognition of the responsibility of education systems to urgently prevent the development of extremism in students.
Given the uncertainty over how and why people become extremists, and the different pathways they take there is no model that would adequately guide an enquiry of extremism, religion, and education. The paper will discuss several push factors identified in the process of becoming extremists that can be addressed in the school system such as marginalization, feelings of historical injustice and threat to identity of individual or group, and search for meaning in life. Educational responses that involve cognitive, affective, and ethical domains may be considered as possible preventive measures. Educational measures involve soft power and have been found to be effective in some countries along with hard measures by governments.

Author

• Ratna Ghosh, McGill University