Viggo Vestel is a social anthropologist at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). He and the Dialogue on Radicalization and Equality (DARE) project study how young people become radicalized and what can be done to change their course.

They are mainly interested in the extreme right and Islamic extremism. Unlike other radicalization studies, DARE does not focus on individuals who commit acts of terrorism, but on the environment and situations that create opportunities for radicalization.

Provides a place where they feel heard

“Young people have a certain sensitivity and sensibility for what is happening in the world. They tend to exaggerate and create new identities around subcultures, including political positions,” says Vestel.

These subcultures are heavily influenced by friends and the general environment around them. Young people can get into snowboarding, hip-hop or black metal, but they can also get sucked into extremist bands.

Their motivations can be complex. A youth told Vestel that he joined a neo-Nazi group his brother introduced him to, not because he agreed with the ideology, but because they took him to nice parties and that he liked the clothes.

Basically, one of the main reasons young people are attracted to extremist groups is that they provide a place where they can feel heard. There are injustices everywhere and many young people who join these groups see themselves and the extremists as trying to “improve” the world in some way.

Method for how to reverse radicalization

Vestel’s research examines the issue of extremism more broadly than most other research.

Instead of focusing only on the few extremists who go so far as to commit acts of terrorism, DARE looks at people who join the groups but stop in the face of violence.

A big part of that is understanding their environmental influences: their social interactions, their physical conditions, their feelings, and the extremist ideas and policies they are exposed to.

This environmental approach is key to understanding how to reverse radicalization.

The first challenge is to have access and to meet people ready to speak. Vestel says many people in these groups have a strong distrust of journalists and researchers, so it’s pretty hard to get them to talk.

So, to reach people, Vestel keeps an eye on the media to find groups and individuals who are in this field and contact them to see if they are willing to talk.

A common characteristic of members of these groups is that they feel silenced by the mainstream media, so it is possible to find people who are happy to have someone to share their stories and concerns with.

The road to radicalization

The path to radicalization often begins with concrete grievances, real or perceived reasons to be angry with the state of the world.

For right-wing groups, radicalization can start with feeling threatened by immigrants, feeling like strangers in their own home because of all the new people. These feelings can manifest as opposition to changing norms and values, especially gender roles.

Many of them also believe that inequality is the natural state of the world and oppose efforts to break down these barriers, even though they are also highly critical of what they see as “the elite”.

“Globally, and here in Norway, so many of these groups are growing in the same direction of nationalism, re-immigration (the idea that people should go back to their country of origin) and fear of Islam,” says Vestel.

Racism and discrimination

Young Muslims often feel more pervasive injustices. Many of them are victims of racism, harassment and discrimination.

In addition, they refer to world events, such as wars and invasions by Western powers in Muslim-dominated areas, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, injustices in US-run prisons, and the situation of Uyghurs. and Rohingya.

Many young people in Vestel work and report being stopped and watched by the police for no reason.

The racist murder of Benjamin Hermansen in 2001 by a Nazi group had a profound effect on the Muslim community in Norway.

These experiences, the big politics and general negativity they encounter lead many young people to try to change the society they live in and open them up to extremism.

Recruiters are still waiting to grasp these grievances and offer young people a path to more extreme views.

They consider young people between the ages of 12 and 30 to be prime recruitment targets.

The internet allows young people and recruiters to connect across the world and inspire people to join online groups or even travel around the world to join terrorist organizations.

Turn around

“A lot of people have attitudes, very few do,” says Vestel.

People may have extreme attitudes and views and not want to accept them.

Vestel says that while many young people express these ideas or even join extremist groups, almost all of them stop short of committing acts of violence or terrorism.

A key part of his research is understanding what determines the line where people say “No, that’s too extreme for me” and stop.

DARE has discovered that feeling listened to is a major element in reversing the process of radicalization. It is important to have positive influences and experiences with family, friends and authorities.

Vestel cites as an example how important it was for young Muslims when then Prime Minister Erna Solberg publicly admitted the mistakes of the Norwegian government and warned against creating laws that did to Muslims what Nazis did to Jews.

Family and changing social situations also play a role. Many people in the process of radicalization change course when they have a spouse and dependent children.

The responsibility of a family can make them feel that their radicalization has gone too far. This brings us to a more fundamental driving factor: loneliness.

“An informant from Norway told us that he was alone, didn’t have many friends, was looking for some kind of community and he got the idea that the Nordic Resistance Movement (a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi group) was a good community that could give a sense of identity and care for each other. It wasn’t necessarily the ideology that appealed to him, but the community,” says Vestel.

Project scope

Working with these young people and making them feel heard is a major element in reversing radicalization.

Developing dialogue and taking seriously their concerns, not their radical ideas but their experiences and emotions, is essential.

Vestel and his team work with a group of representatives from municipalities that have problems with young extremists.

They meet and discuss their findings, develop projects and create arenas where young people can express their political concerns and have discussions. Through their research and these meetings, they develop tools to counter violent radicalization.

DARE (Dialogue on Radicalization and Equality) is funded by HORIZON 2020 and includes 13 other countries. The project studies how young people between the ages of 12 and 30 react to messages and agents of radicalization.

Upon completion, the project will develop policy briefs with recommendations on how policymakers can counter radicalization and plans for new avenues of research.