"Religious fundamentalists have a common fear that modernity, digital mass media, and popular culture may corrupt young adults and undermine sacred values and moral codes. However, some young adults do not abandon their religion; conversely, they submit to fundamentalist religious authority and are ...willing to become martyrs. This paper seeks to provide a theoretical understanding of the relationship between religious fundamentalism and Gen Y and Gen Z’s search for meaning in the digital media ecology. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the theoretical perspectives of religious fundamentalism, imagined communities, sacred values, terror-management-theory and digital media theories to generate new insights on countering online radicalization. However rather than recommending more online counterpropaganda dampening violent extremism targeting communities, this article builds on the view that an integrated approach on digital citizenship, off-line interfaith communication, and religious face-to-face encounters with ‘the other’ to share sacred and secular values in the pedagogical environment will help understand the social reality of ‘the other’ and can offer effective insights to prevent home-grown extremism, social insularity and reduce in-group biases at an early age." (Abstract)
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"Es ist erstaunlich, dass der römisch-katholische Radio-Priester Charles Coughlin – Vertreter der amerikanischen Religiösen Rechten, Antikommunist, Antisemit, Demagoge und Zeitzeuge der ersten America First-Bewegung – hierzulande so gut wie unbekannt ist. Ebenso erstaunlich ist, dass er bis vo...r kurzem in den USA, einem Land, in dem allsonntäglich Millionen Menschen seinen politischen Predigten lauschten, nahezu vollständig in Vergessenheit geraten war. Coughlins Geschichte weist viele Aspekte auf, die auch gegenwärtig in Gesellschaft und Politik, nicht nur in den USA, eine Rolle spielen: die Nutzung neuer Medien für die Verbreitung von alternativen Fakten und Verschwörungstheorien, der Erfolg populistischer Versprechungen, Narzissmus, die Konfrontation von Demagogie und wehrhafter Demokratie. Der Politikwissenschaftler Helmut Klumpjan schildert das politisch-religiöse Leben Father Coughlins, erklärt den historischen und politischen Kontext seiner Zeit (1891–1979) und misst zuletzt den Wegbereiter des Hate Radio an seinem eigenen Idol: Wie gelingt es einem Menschen, der sich das Liebes-Motto einer christlichen Heiligen auf die Fahne geschrieben hat, dennoch Hass zu verbreiten?" (Verlag)
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"Auch die salafistische Szene nutzt den virtuellen Raum zur Propagierung ihrer Ideologie und zur Rekrutierung von Mitgliedern. Gerade für eine jüngere Zielgruppe hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren ein breites Angebot im deutschsprachigen Raum herausgebildet, mit dem Salafisten ihre Glaubensinhalte... zu verbreiten suchen, die auf einer "reinen" und wortwörtlichen Lesart islamischer Schriften fußen und somit zwangsläufig einer pluralen und demokratischen Staats- und Gesellschaftsform zuwiderlaufen." (Verlag)
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"This paper explores the interconnections of Hindutva fascist repertoires in India and quasi-orientalist discourses. History and common sense are re-written through audiovisual communications to appeal to one section of a dangerously split Indian public and a neoliberal-touristic sensibility elsewhe...re. Enlightenment rhetorics of progress, democracy and technological development are apparently embodied by WhatsApp groups, electronic voting machines and laws to protect cows. Voting—as a marker of democratic citizenship—becomes a masquerade protecting a resurgent far right Hindutva (Hindu fascist) regime under the aegis of Narendra Modi and the BJP. Caste Hinduism’s association of cows with deities, and the proscription on meat-eating in certain versions of religious practice, are used as pretexts for unimaginable violence against Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and working class/lower caste Hindus. Violence against those who dissent is rationalised as patriotic. Hindutva’s banal and spectacular audiovisual discourse overwhelms public communication. Its consequences are a form of vigilante citizenship that is marked on the bodies of dead victims and of vigilante publics ready to be mobilised either in ethno-cultural violence or its defence and disavowal. Meanwhile, attracted to India as an enormous market, Western governments and corporations have colluded with the Hindutva regime’s self-promotion as a bastion of development." (Abstract)
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"In the case of contemporary Buddhism, we have seen how fundamentalism and democracy are connected to each other, and also how the public sphere, mediated by the new technology of the internet, has a role to play in these relations. We have seen how groups such as the 'Santi Asoke' are succeeding de...spite the absence of any support from the political authorities, and how this has made the traditional Buddhist establishment feel insecure. According to Marty and Appleby, fundamentalism is understood as an attempt to divide 'us' from 'them' through shared traditions and beliefs. In the case of Thailand, this divisive attitude is a modern phenomenon arising from dissatisfaction with the contemporary economy and with globalisation, which appear threatening to the most conservative members of the Sangha. In this sense, it is ironic that the austere and anti-capitalist Sanrti Asoke is less fundamentalist than the traditional Buddhist establishment." (Conclusion, p.233-234)
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"Within less than 20 years, the number of Arabic-language satellite channels has risen from zero to more than 500, including channels financed by the US, Russia, China, the UK and France. Some 50 of these channels label themselves as Islamic (and a handful are Christian) , but Islamic programming is... also present in many of the other channels, whether state-run or private. This massive proliferation of Islamic programming has also given rise to specifically Islamist and Salafist channels and programmes. This chapter will describe these developments and discuss their implications. Mass media and Islamic fundamentalism go back a long way in the Arab World." (p.264)
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"For me, growing up in Detroit, Coughlin was a fascinating figure of local lore: both loved and hated, he was clearly someone whose career cannot be reduced to a single dimension. It may well be argued that the conventional standards of biography should not be applied to media figures, for theirs is... a life of fused private and public selves. In the case of Charles Coughlin, to know the real man behind the microphone is certainly beyond the ken of the author. Here lies the particular dilemma of this study: how to discern whether the subject is the mirror of his audience or its manipulator. And this remains the problem regardless of how one feels about his message. Moreover, the temptation to obliterate this duality—inner versus other-directed self—must be set aside. For as a media personality Charles Coughlin was both the creator and the captive of his enthusiastic public." (Preface)
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