Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Body. Freedom. Choice: Creating Artwork In Post-Roe America, Erin Sedra

MSU Graduate Theses

I knew from a young age that I never wanted children. Whenever I expressed my disinterest in motherhood, I was often met with bewilderment, disapproval, and hostility. The church I was raised in taught me that my value and worth as a woman directly correlated with the power of my birthing hips. This fundamentalist upbringing has significantly shaped my relationship with my femininity, my body, and my artwork. When I feel powerless, turning to my art gives me a sense of control and self-expression. This body of work began as a reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and …

Christians And The Irreligious: What Is Associated With Religious Bias Between Groups?, Lucas Wall

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

With the tremendous rise in the prevalence of atheism and agnosticism in the U.S. in the past several years, it becomes more important than ever to assess intergroup relations between the Christian majority and the rapidly increasing atheist and agnostic minority. This study assesses personal factors that correlate with various levels of participant desire to affiliate with Christians (Progressive Protestants, Conservative Protestants, and Catholics) and the unaffiliated (atheists and agnostics) within a convenience sample. Participant factors studied included political conservatism, agreeableness, openness, social dominance orientation, and religious commitment. While low desire to affiliate is a poor representative of all forms …

Understanding Myanmar’S Buddhist Extremists: Some Preliminary Musings, Kumar Ramakrishna

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines Buddhist extremism in Myanmar. It argues that Buddhist extremism—like other types of religious extremism—is an acute form of fundamentalism. The article begins with a survey of how extremism is usually understood in the theoretical literature, showing that its religious variant is best conceived of as an acute form of fundamentalism. It then fine tunes this understanding, arguing that religious extremism is a fundamentalist belief system that justifies structural violence against relevant out-groups. The article outlines seven core characteristics of the religious extremist culled from the various theoretical approaches to extremism. It employs these seven characteristics to examine …

Divided By The Sermon On The Mount, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay, written for a festschrift for Bob Cochran, argues that the much-discussed friction between evangelical supporters of President Trump and evangelical critics is a symptom of a much deeper theological divide over the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus told his disciples to turn the other cheek when struck, love their neighbor as themselves, and pray that their debts will be forgiven as they forgive their debtors. Divergent interpretations of these teachings have given rise to competing evangelical visions of justice. One side of today’s divide—the religious right—can be traced directly back to the fundamentalist critics of the early …

De-Radicalization Of Fundamentalism Through The Thought Of Mohammed Arkoun, Muhammad Rezan, Naupal Asnawi

International Review of Humanities Studies

Fundamentalism in religion has become an important issue in people's lives, especially in areas with high heterogeneity. The emergence of various cases of attacks against innocent people in the name of religion, has become an irony of its own, especially for religious believers. The irony arises when religion teaches peace in diversity, but there are many irregularities in its implementation. Various factors in the emergence of fundamentalism in religion do not necessarily become a reason for the lack of efforts to deradicalize this understanding. Mohammed Arkoun, through his various studies, has raised the significance of a re-understanding of religious texts …

Exiters Of Religious Fundamentalism: Reconstruction Of Identity, Social Relationships And Support, And Meaning Related To Well-Being, Andreea Alexandra Nica

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past decade, researchers have documented the steady growth of religious "nones," those who do not affiliate with any organized religion. There is, however, limited research examining religious disaffiliation on health outcomes--that is, how the process of religious disaffiliation or exiting contributes to mental well-being. These trends and gap in the literature make it timely and it is important to consider the impact of leaving religion on the well-being of individuals experiencing this life transition. This qualitative study investigates a particularly understudied subgroup of exiters -- individuals who have exited Christian fundamentalist religious groups.

Drawing on 24 in-depth, individual …

An Analysis Of The Sociopolitical Factors Contributing To The Politicization Of Sunni Islam In The Middle East, Ginger Wenzel Kieffer

Honors College

This research analyzes the sociopolitical trends of the 20th century that have contributed to the susceptibility of the Middle East to extremist organizations, with a particular focus on Sunni Islamic groups such as the Islamic State. The goal of this analysis is to show how the failure of states to provide sociopolitical and economic stability has led to the politicization of religiosity as an alternative to secular authority.

The major aspects analyzed will be the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, imperialism, nationalism, and the eventual turn towards fundamentalist, extremist organizations within the Middle East. The failure of governmental systems to …

Subject Formation, Fundamentalism And Instrumentalist Nationalism In Zimbabwean Politics, Joram Tarusarira Dr.

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article argues that despite presiding over a failed economy, the Zimbabwe African Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) led by Robert Mugabe, has willing and enthusiastic supporters. There are claims that the large crowds witnessed singing and dancing at ZANU PF rallies are mobilized by force because the attendees do not benefit anything from supporting the regime. In a divergence from the consensus of the literature, this article surfaces other explanations than coercion for the huge turnout at rallies, rented crowds, handouts, and well-articulated election manifestos. The psychological dimension, especially the fundamentalist mindset created by instrumentalist nationalism, is one such …

Ethnicity, Religion And Violence In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jusuf Salih

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The violence that erupted in the Balkans at the end of the second millennium made fierce enemies of people who had lived together in peace as neighbors, friends, classmates, and married couples. Nationalism, chauvinism, and religious fanaticism quickly grew stronger, leading to the disappearance of centuries-long harmony among its inhabitants. Among the reasons for the conflict were the experienced communist leaders who skillfully used religious slogans to advance their campaigns; also, religious leaders became close associates to political leaders with hopes that they would attain the religious rights denied and limited during the old governance. As a result, nationalism and …

Reducing Substance Abuse Stigma In Employment Application, Timothy W. Curran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A history of substance use and having a history of legal charges can be a barrier to employment. Available research shows individuals with a criminal history of substance related charges have greater difficulty obtaining employment due to the presence of substance abuse stigma and criminal history stigma. Research also shows that employers with higher levels of fundamentalism and conservativism are more likely to negatively evaluate applicants with a criminal history of substance charges. Furthermore, available research demonstrates employers in rural areas are more likely to deny employment to an individual with a legal history of substance charges based upon higher …

"The Family" & Faith: The Theology Of Power, Erika Phillipo

Senior Theses

The Family & Faith: The Theology of Power hopes to shed light on the relationship between American politics, American history, and the Christian Fundamentalist group known as The Family. This paper uses the book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet as its main source. By connecting the relationship between this mega-group with American politics and politicians, the theme of power arises and refuses to go away. Thus, the focus goes beyond simply just political influence and history and instead results ultimately with how the group gains and maintains their power within the …

Leaving Ideological Social Groups Behind: A Grounded Theory Of Psychological Disengagement, Kira Jade Harris

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Much of the current disengagement literature focuses on the causes of an individual leaving a radical social group with the intention of countering fundamentalism and violent extremism. However, the link between the cause and the decision to disengage is unclear as one cause may facilitate disengagement for one member and not another. Minimal empirical research exists on the individual’s psychological experience of disengagement and the studies that have been done tend to focus on sole ideologies or group types. What is lacking in the field of disengagement is a broader understanding of the core psychological experience across a broad range …

The Perceived Threat Of Secularism And Militancy Among Religious Fundamentalists, Chase Wilson

Master's Theses

Religious fundamentalism has been found to predict endorsement of aggressive counterterrorism techniques, such as the use of severe interrogations and pre-emptive military attacks (e.g. Barnes, Brown & Osterman, 2012). The present study tested whether a perceived increase in secularism constitutes a psychological threat to American religious fundamentalists, and thus increases endorsement of such counterterrorism tactics. Replicating previous research, religious fundamentalism was found to positively predict endorsement of aggressive counterterrorism techniques, even when controlling for ideology and party identification. Contrary to hypothesis, the secularism prime had no effect. An unpredicted finding of this study was that religious fundamentalism only related to …

Predictors Of Perfectionism In Latter-Day Saint Students, Preston V. Tenney

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to gain insight into the prevalence, nature and etiology of perfectionism in a sample of devout Latter-day Saint college students at Brigham Young University. A number of variables-including self-conscious emotions, mental health, interpersonal/cognitive style, and religious orientation-were entered into multiple regression models to determine the strongest predictors of perfectionism. Participants were 245 students studying at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT in the spring of 1995. The self-conscious construct of shame demonstrated to be the strongest predictor of perfectionism followed by depression and religious fundamentalism. In addition to these findings, it was found …

Living With Differences: From Everyday Fundamentalisms To Invitational Communication, Lisa M. Watrous

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This project examines fundamentalism understood as an everyday way of living poorly with difference. It demonstrates that the fundamentalist is not reducible to stereotypes of the terrorist, extremist, irrational madman, or religious zealot. All of these characterizations--common in mainstream media--depict the fundamentalist as them, and rarely, if ever, as us. Rather, this project understands fundamentalism in terms of fundamental interpretive constructs that constrain our ways of being-with others, skew our interpretive and responsive possibilities, distort our perceptions of difference, and affirm our poor treatment of others. Following Martin Heidegger's conception of the hermeneutic structure of existence, this dissertation calls attention …

Neoliberal Dispositif And The Rise Of Fundamentalism: The Case Of Pakistan, Masood Ashraf Raja Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

While developmental theorists rely heavily on analysis of macro and micro economic theories and developmental sequencing, not much attention is paid to the undeniable linkage between the post-seventies liberalization of global economies and the rise of different kinds of religious fundamentalism. This article suggests that there is a strong connection between neoliberal economics and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan can be directly linked to the insertion of performative religious acts, predominantly Islamic, into the national public sphere during the rule of Zia-ul-Haq. Since that time, the public sphere in Pakistan has been increasingly …

"The Dynamics Of Terror And Creation Of Homegrown Terrorists," Richard J. Hughbank, Ed. Et Al., (Mustang, Ok: Tate Publishing And Enterprises, 2010), Jennifer Jefferis

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

"The New Muslim Brotherhood In The West," Lorenzo Vidino, (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), Sheldon Greaves , Ph.D.

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Four Lessons From The Study Of Fundamentalism And Psychology Of Religion, Sara Savage

Journal of Strategic Security

What lessons can the study of fundamentalism and the psychology of religion teach the newer field of Radicalization and Involvement in Violent Extremism (RIVE)? Four lessons and an intervention are offered in this article: (1) Religion is a robust human experience and cultural product that adopts a defensive shape when its worldview is threatened. (2) This does not mean that all "fundamentalisms" or radical versions of religion are somehow linked or perform similar functions; rather, they reflect the limited human repertoire to threat, yet within different cultural and historical contexts. (3) Causal explanations on the level of the individual are …

Gangs, Terrorism, And Radicalization, Scott Decker, David Pyrooz

Journal of Strategic Security

What can street gangs tell us about radicalization and extremist groups? At first glance, these two groups seem to push the boundaries of comparison. In this article, we examine the important similarities and differences across criminal, deviant, and extremist groups. Drawing from research on street gangs, this article explores issues such as levels of explanation,organizational structure, group process, and the increasingly important role of technology and the Internet in the context of radicalization. There are points of convergence across these groups, but it is important to understand the differences between these groups. This review finds little evidence to support the …

Radicalization Into Violent Extremism Ii: A Review Of Conceptual Models And Empirical Research, Randy Borum

Journal of Strategic Security

Over the past decade, analysts have proposed several frameworks to explain the process of radicalization into violent extremism (RVE). These frameworks are based primarily on rational, conceptual models which are neither guided by theory nor derived from systematic research. This article reviews recent (post-9/11) conceptual models of the radicalization process and recent (post-9/11) empirical studies of RVE. It emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between ideological radicalization and terrorism involvement, though both issues deserve further empirical inquiry.Finally, it summarizes some recent RVE-related research efforts, identifies seven things that social science researchers and operational personnel still need to know about violent radicalization, …

Friction: How Radicalization Happens To Them And Us. By Clark Mccauley And Sophia Moskalenko (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Robin L. Thompson

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Conceptualizing Terrorist Violence And Suicide Bombing, Murad Ismayilov

Journal of Strategic Security

This article presents an analysis of different approaches to terrorist violence, with a particular focus on suicide terrorism, using the above mentioned levels of analysis as a conceptual framework to organize this study. In doing so, the article focuses primarily on four selected studies: Khashan's theory of collective Palestinian frustration operating at individual and structural levels; Pape's strategic theory of suicide terrorism, Devji's notion of global jihad, and Hammes' conceptualization of suicide terrorism as one of the strategies of Fourth Generation Warfare, all studied at a strategic level. Drawing on these analyses, as well as on Tilly, this article attempts …

Eriksonian Identity Theory In Counterterrorism, Cally O'Brien

Journal of Strategic Security

Certain terrorists come from unexpected backgrounds. They give up comfortable lives and opportunities in order to wage jihad. Their existence has puzzled various theorists since they came to light. This article will explain how a theory of psychosocial identity formation created by Erik Erikson and his student James Marcia may explain this phenomenon. It will also explain how Erikson's theoretical legacy has contributed to current attempts at increasing moderation in the Middle East through education. Many of those attempts reflect ideas that are drawn from Eriksonian theory, although they are not typically described in Eriksonian terms. Meanwhile, while some theorists …

Islamist Distortions: Hizb Ut- Tahrir A Breeding Ground For Al- Qaida Recruitment, Krishna Mungur

Journal of Strategic Security

In 1953, a radical splinter organization from the Muslim Brotherhood,Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT), was founded by the Al-Azhar University (Cairo,Egypt) educated jurist Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani who criticized theMuslim Brotherhood for collaborating with Egyptian secularists, such as Gamal Abdel Nasser. A sizable portion of the more radical members of the Muslim Brotherhood broke away, to join Nabhani's budding movement. Today, HuT is known to operate in more than forty countries, calling for the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate, with a history of violence and links to violent terrorist organizations. Given increasing tensions in the region over the presence of coalition troops, Predator …

Tolerance, Democracy And Fundamentalism(S) : Challenges In Time Of Systemic Bifurcations, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Relationships Between Religion And Prejudice: Implicit And Explicit Measures., Horace Ted Denney

Psychology Theses

This study examined the relationship among implicit and explicit measures of prejudice (against African-Americans, homosexuals, and Muslims), Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Religious Fundamentalism (RF), and Christian Orthodoxy (CO). The implicit measure of prejudice was Facial EMG, which is the measurement of the activity of key facial muscles when participants were exposed to pictures of members of the minority groups, as well as to pictures of the corresponding group. The explicit measure of prejudice was the Social Distance Scale, which measures how willing people are to have someone in a variety of close relationships. The primary hypothesis was that one’s score on …

De L’Écriture De L’Urgence À L’Écriture Du Renouveau, Armelle Crouzières-Ingenthron

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This critical analysis focuses on Rachid Boudjedra’s trilogy that deals with Algerian fundamentalism. Even though Boudjedra’s famous labyrinthine and vertiginous technique was at first based on the literary, on a pleasure of writing that would in turn trigger political thought – at least until the publication of the political pamphlet FIS de la haine –, his more recent technique reflects an urgency and a writing focused on political thought, both of which give birth to a literary process. Despite the author’s well-known reticence regarding conventional happy endings, he annihilates once and for all terrorism and fundamentalism, and embraces an optimistically …

Tolerance And Democracy Instead Of Fundamentalism And Empire, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Linking Public Opinion To State Legislative Behavior: The Partial Birth Abortion Issue, Michael Bruce, Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The effect of public opinion on state legislative behavior has been an important and extensively explored topic. However, not much research has been conducted regarding public opinion on the abortion issue and how it influences state legislative behavior. Previous theory suggests that highly salient and controversial issues increase the probability that state legislators will respond to public opinion when voting. Arguing that issue salience and interest groups act as facilitating factors, I hypothesize that public opinion plays a significant role in determining whether or not state legislatures pass bans on partial birth abortion. Using Brace et al (2002) state-level opinion …