In 2014, eight years prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian-backed separatists seized parts of the Ukrainian regions Luhansk and Donetsk. Shortly thereafter, thousands of Ukrainians voluntarily enrolled to various paramilitary battalions. Unlike the Right Sector's Volunteer Ukrainian Corps (RS VUC), almost all battalions were incorporated into Ukrainian official defence structures. Applying uncertainty-identity theory and based on interviews, observations, and documents, this study investigates the attractiveness of RS VUC prior to the 2022 war, motivating the fighters to join this organisation and to remain in it. The study found that fighters of RS VUC distrusted society, the wider population, and state authorities. RS VUC, with its high fighting morale, discipline, family-like relationships between fighters, as well as its clear ideology and boundaries between 'us' and 'them', were attractive to the fighters since its unambiguous group prototypes and high entitativity, reduced the fighters' self-uncertainty regarding their social identity in an uncertain environment. The findings also revealed that the fighters' choice to join RS VUC can be understood as a rational decision, since RS VUC's group entitativity provided the fighters with moral and emotional benefits, as well as maximised their chances of survival.

Steiner and Önnerfors explore in this concluding chapter the main themes addressed in the volume such as an enlarged geographical scope in the study of radicalization, heuristic and methodological considerations. A particular aim of the chapter is to highlight the diversity of approaches and data that this volume brings together ranging from large scale quantitative meta-studies to qualitative analyses. Discussing potential outlooks for the research area, the authors suggest to investigate closer the clash of values that radicalization reveals. Another issue concerns legitimacy, since radical movements and ideas frequently operate with the goal to undermine the legitimacy of existing political rule. Furthermore, the authors propose to investigate enemy images in the radicalized and polarized world views across the board of ethno-nationalist, political and religious extremism.

This edited collection considers whether it is possible to discern how the level of ideology is affected by radicalization. In other words: what happens in the minds of people before they decide to use political violence as means to attain their goals? Also this book asks: what has to happen in the minds of people in order to preclude them from using political violence as a way of attaining their goals? This volume unites scholars from several disciplines and perspectives from a number of different geographical, social and cultural contexts with the overarching aim to refine our understanding of what ‘radicalization’ actually implies.

Steiner and Lundberg examine how Israeli Messianic leaders articulate the hope for peace in the Middle East. More specifically, they draw attention to how Messianic leaders understand the Middle Eastern conflicts and whether this understanding could be considered as radical. All of the informants underline the complexity of the conflicts and most of them tend to emphasize their permanence. The informants are pessimists regarding the conflict, half of them describe it in fatalist terms. This colours their hope for peace; they expect an escalation of the Middle Eastern conflicts, even the apocalypse. And lastly, the informants prefer a one-state solution. In comparison to the Israeli political mainstream, like Likud, the Messianic movement is not necessarily radical.

Using a hermeneutical method, this study seeks to understand Christian Zionism as a meaningful practice in late modern Sweden. We visited four Christian Zionist conferences: we observed, analysed the sermons, and conducted interviews. The conferences are almost entirely attended by elderly people and the style is characterized by an old-time revivalist nostalgia. Results show that Israel is seen as key to understanding a general conflict that the informants experience in late modern Swedish society, and in relation to the majority church. Supporting Israel is intertwined with support for conservative values and theology, and Israel becomes a nodal point that puts the greater conflict in new perspective: identifying with Old Testament prophecies and God’s dealings with Israel gives hope and a sense of continuity to a revivalist movement that has become out-of-date. In Israel they connect with both the past and the future, personally and as a movement.

This is a descriptive comparative analysis on the usage of gender in the construction of Muslims in 2006–2007 in four Swedish publications—the liberal Dagens Nyheter, the Evangelical Dagen, the fundamentalist Världen idag and the neo-nationalist journal SD-Kuriren. Världen idag and SD-Kuriren tend to describe Muslims and Islam as threatening, aggressive and the cause of social and political problems. Muslims are associated with negative behaviour. Dagens Nyheter and Dagen avoid describing Muslims and Islam as a threat and more often seek constructive solutions to different problems. Dagens Nyheter describes conflicts between Muslim and Christian actors in political, not religious, terms. Dagen sees Muslims and Christians alike as victims of secularization. Gender is used relatively infrequently as an instrument to construct this image of Muslims and Islam.

This article is a descriptive comparative quantitative content analysis of the construction of Islam and Muslims in 2006–2007 in four Swedish publications – the liberal newspaper Dagens Nyheter representing mainstream media, the Evangelical newspaper Dagen, the fundamentalist newspaper Världen idag representing the Christian right, and the journal SD-Kuriren, the official organ of the Sweden Democrats, a neo-nationalist party. The aim is to see where a chasm between those media that accept the presence of Muslims and Islam in Sweden, and those that do not, occurs. The results put the liberal Dagens Nyheter and the Evangelical Dagen on one side of the divide and the fundamentalist Världen idag and the neo-nationalist SD-Kuriren on the other. Världen idag and SD-Kuriren tend to describe Muslims and Islam as threatening, and ‘our’ elite as retreating.In these two media, Muslims are consistently described as aggressive and the cause of social and political problems. Finally, in both media, Muslims are related to negative behavior; good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded, while bad behavior is assumed to reflect their true character. Världen idag also claims that Islam is incompatible with democracy. Liberal Dagens Nyheter and Evangelical Dagen avoid describing Muslims and Islam as a threat and more often seek constructive solutions to different problems. Dagens Nyheter moreover describes conflicts between Muslim and Christian actors in political, not religious, terms. Dagen also sees Muslims and Christians alike as victims of the forces of secularization.

This study examines how the hope for peace in the Middle East is articulated in Swedish Christian Zionist movements, both publicly and in private interviews with leaders and speakers. The article shows that Swedish Christian Zionist movements’ public lectures and sermons rarely address political issues as peace. However, they do reiterate favourable images of Jews and occasionally negative images of Muslims and Arabs. It is apparent in interviews that these leaders and speakers are pessimistic regarding peace in the Middle East. For them, it is not attainable, and, in some cases, it is described as transcendent. In some interviews, Islam, Muslims, and Arabs – in some cases specific Muslim actors – are depicted as inferior, violent, and obstacles to peace. The favourable images of Jews reoccur, and they are instrumentalized, albeit infrequently. Lastly, Christians are repeatedly discouraged to support peace, since it might be false, or to demand Israeli territorial concessions.

Currently, there are two Christian newspapers on the Swedish media market. One is Dagen (The Day), founded in 1945 as Pentecostal newspaper. The other is Världen idag (The World Today), founded in 2001 and officially independent and non-denominational. In this study, the representation of Muslims and Islam in these two Swedish Evangelical newspapers will be analysed. The analysis will deal with editorials from 2006 and 2007. More specifically, the aim is to reveal the differences and similarities on 1) how Muslims and Islam are described, what value judgements are made; and 2) what linguistic strategies that are undertaken to construct the image in question.Analyses on discourses have become mainstream in social science. The correlation between knowledge and power is widely accepted. So is the argument that control over public discourse is a power position and that knowledge is political. In this study it is assumed that discourse plays a role in (re)producing dominance and that discourse limits the freedom of action of others. Therefore it is important to reveal “the discourse dimensions of power abuse and the injustice and inequality that result from it”. Discourse tends to influence, even distort, the way we under¬stand and interpret social reality. In particular media discourse affects an audience in those contexts where it has no personal experience, particularly if said media confirm or allude to prejudiced beliefs. As Swedish Evangelicals in general probably have limited personal contact with Muslims, there is a risk that Christian media “helps shape the ideas that the general public held about Islam and Muslims”. This means that racist discourse “counts more than as ‘just talk’ and becomes powerful as a form of social action in its own right” and sustains oppressive power relations.

This is a comparative study of how Swedish and German Christian Zionist literature from 1967–2012 portrays the chances for peace and the risk for war, globally and in the Middle East. Christian Zionism is a theology supporting the establishment and the preservation of the modern state of Israel as a Jewish homeland. Christian Zionist literature, in Germany and Sweden, demonstrates very little hope for peace, since this world is assumed fallen, heading for the apocalypse, in the hands of the Devil, and inhabited by a sinful humanity beyond improvement. The image of Arabs is clearly that of an enemy image; so portraying them as inferior: permanently lying, violent, dangerous, and incapable. Thus, peace with Arabs is futile. Jews are given appreciative attributes: intelligent, democratic, progressive and capable. However, Jews are instrumentalized, being regarded as a tool in a fatalistic end-time schema. They are expected to “return” to Israel, a requirement for the return of the Messiah. In Israel, Jews will face Armageddon, leaving many to perish. The readership of this literature is required to pray for Israel and for the “return” of Jews. However, it is explicitly dissuaded from supporting peace initiatives, and never required to save Jews from Armageddon. German and Swedish literatures generally share the same beliefs, and the discourse has been largely consistent over the years.

This is a comparative content analysis of the construction of Islam and Muslims in two Swedish publications—the newspaper Världen idag and the journal SD-Kuriren, the official organ of the Sweden Democrats—representing the Swedish Evangelical Christian right and the Swedish political right, respectively. The aim is to see both agreement and differences in their Muslim-related discourse from 2006–2007. Both news products share basic assumptions about Muslims and Islam. The main theme in the editorials and articles is the Muslim threat, in some cases combined with a Western retreat. Världen idag also focuses on Islam’s alleged incompatibility with democracy. In both media Muslims are consistently described as aggressive and are seen as the cause of different problems. Lastly, in both media products, Muslims are related to negative behavior; good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded, while bad behavior is assumed to reflect their true character.

This is a case study on the construction of Islam and Muslims in sixty editorials 2006 in a Swedish Evangelical newspaper, Världen idag (“The World Today”). The paper was founded in 2001 and is offfijicially independent and non-denominational. In reality, it is fijinancially and ideologically dependent on the radical faith movement. Its circulation is about 8,500. The main theme in the selected editorials is “Muslim threat,” in some cases combined with “Western retreat” and “Islam’s incompatibility with democracy.” Islam and Muslims are consistently described as causing these problems. However, terms denoting Muslims are rarely derogatory, instead Muslims are depicted in terms of broad denotation, like “Muslims” or “the Muslim world.” These labels are often combined with a stark derogatory complement . Aggressive acts like “demanding” and “murdering” or “mass-murdering” are the most common ones associated with Muslims. Good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded; bad behavior reflects true character. Muslims are depicted as one homogeneous stereotypical and static group.

This is a case study on the construction of Islam and Muslims in sixty editorials 2006 in a Swedish Evangelical newspaper, Världen idag (“The World Today”). The paper was founded in 2001 and is offfijicially independent and non-denominational. In reality, it is fijinancially and ideologically dependent on the radical faith movement. Its circulation is about 8,500. The main theme in the selected editorials is “Muslim threat,” in some cases combined with “Western retreat” and “Islam’s incompatibility with democracy.” Islam and Muslims are consistently described as causing these problems. However, terms denoting Muslims are rarely derogatory, instead Muslims are depicted in terms of broad denotation, like “Muslims” or “the Muslim world.” These labels are often combined with a stark derogatory complement . Aggressive acts like “demanding” and “murdering” or “mass-murdering” are the most common ones associated with Muslims. Good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded; bad behavior reflects true character. Muslims are depicted as one homogeneous stereotypical and static group.