JM Berger’s latest, 1

[ by Charles Cameron — JM’s sustained attack on Christian Identity and ISIS ]

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JM on his latest piece:

Today, @ICCT_TheHague publishes my new paper: Extremist Construction of Identity https://t.co/0Zwd3RrjFh pic.twitter.com/14QO3KTwT9

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) April 21, 2017

.@ICCT_TheHague This paper builds on my previous work for ICCT, including https://t.co/tTpeCkWajy and https://t.co/5AYokmbpZt

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) April 21, 2017

.@ICCT_TheHague It also builds on the amazing work of @haroro_ingram including https://t.co/XEvSYSJl9t and https://t.co/LOOPZom3GQ

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) April 21, 2017

I’ve kept those first three tweets in Twitter form becaue they include graphics. JM’s series continues on twitter, but here I’m reformatting it as regular prose for ease of reading:

The paper is first in a series aiming to develop a framework to study extremism as a phenomenon crossing ideological boundaries.

The framework I’m presenting is derived from a grounded theory approach, using Christian Identity as a starting point. The paper traces how Christian Identity emerged from a non-extremist precursor, and what that says about identity and group radicalization. It also offers new (and probably controversial) definitions of extremism and radicalization, seeking to address a serious gap in consensus. Finally, it offers some ideas for counter-messaging and deradicalization derived from the framework.

The next in the series will apply the framework to ISIS propaganda with concrete notes on how the framework informs counter-messaging. I’m ultimately asking what ISIS has in common with Christian Identity, and what that tells us about each and both.

An important approach, IMO.

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JM Berger’s latest, 2 will present his accompanying overview of recent work in the field.