Book Review: Religious Radicalization and Securitization in

82
Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 45(1)
Enfin, Bouveresse n’oriente jamais les préoccupations religieuses du philosophe
viennois du côté de la métaphysique, absente dans son œuvre, mais plutôt vers son
angoisse fondamentale liée à sa recherche incessante de clarification et de vérité ; il
n’a jamais disqualifié, par des arguments spécieux et militants, les croyances en général
ou la foi en un Dieu, ici, des chrétiens, mais il a plutôt recherché ce qui pouvait faire sens
dans ses jeux de langages qu’emprunte le croyant. Ce que l’auteur souligne fortement à
la fois chez Keller et Wittgenstein, c’est leur conviction en une possibilité de transformation profonde de l’homme, tout d’abord par ses propres efforts, et cela par un travail
de lucidité sur soi ; mais ils sont tous les deux conscients que le croyant habité par la foi
en un Dieu, celui des Évangiles, ne peut être soumis qu’aux mêmes impératifs et qu’inviter quiconque à la foi, c’est avant tout exiger de soi une constante transformation ou
une conversion, en terme théologique.
Ce livre constitue le dernier tome d’une trilogie composée de Peut-on ne pas croire ?
(2007) et de Que faut-il faire de la religion ? (2011), tous publiés chez Agone.
Michel Clément
Moncoutant
Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond
Paul Bramadat and Lorne Dawson (eds)
Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2014. xii þ 332 pp.
This book is the product of an inter-disciplinary research project organized by the
University of Victoria’s Centre for Studies in Religion and Society. The contributors
met to discuss and respond to each other’s draft chapters; as a result the book exhibits a
greater unity than most edited collections. Nevertheless, not all the authors discuss both
religious radicalization and securitization.
Bramadat defines these two key concepts in his Introduction: radicalization is ‘‘the
process by which a person might make a transition from being merely alienated from or
irritated by the dominant culture to being enraged by and violently disposed towards that
culture’’ (5–6); securitization ‘‘refers to the growing emphasis on national security understood both narrowly (e.g., increased border controls for particular states) and broadly (e.g.,
increased international cooperation in the ‘war on terror’ and the pursuit of groups such as
al-Qaeda)’’ (7–8). Securitization attempts to counter radicalization but often encourages it.
Despite the efforts of political leaders and others to dissociate terrorism and religion,
the contributors to this book argue convincingly that many individuals and groups
engaging in terrorist activities are motivated by their particular religious beliefs. Nor
is this a recent phenomenon; as Ian Reader notes, ‘‘the world’s religions are suffused
with images of violence and conflict, usually articulated in terms of cosmic wars of good
against evil’’ (43). Religious radicals can be found in all the major faiths, although most
attention now is directed at Islam.
Three of the chapters are devoted to Muslim extremists. Lorne Dawson’s focus is the
‘‘Toronto 18,’’ a group of young Muslim men who were accused of plotting to attack
Book Reviews / Comptes rendus
83
Canada’s Parliament Building and several other targets. Dawson concludes that there is
not enough data to determine why some disaffected Muslims turn to violence and others
do not. Peter Beyer draws on a survey of 35 young Muslim men conducted between 2004
and 2006 to try to answer this question, but since all of the participants rejected religiously inspired violence, despite having similar backgrounds to some of the Toronto 18,
the question remains unanswered. Uzma Jamil reports on a study of how the war on
terror (securitization) is perceived by South Asian Muslims in Montreal. She found that
they have experienced a significant sense of vulnerability but she does not discuss
whether that has resulted in radicalization.
Muslims are not the only ones who have engaged in religiously-inspired terrorism in
Canada. Doris R. Jakobsh states that ‘‘both the warrior-saint ideal and martyrdom have in
recent history combined under varied circumstances and led to the radicalization of at
least segments of the Sikh populace in various parts of the Sikh diaspora, including in
Canada’’ (180). However, she cautions that it is difficult to disentangle the religious,
cultural and political elements of Sikh radicalization. The role of religion in Sri Lankan
Tamil nationalism is even less prominent, according to Amarnath Amarasingam: ‘‘the
perception remains among Tamil youth that religious institutions are primarily concerned with ritual and, as such, are void of the resources needed for them to be socially
involved and social-justice-oriented individuals in today’s complex geopolitical landscape’’ (217).
The other four authors focus not on specific religions but on securitization and/or
radicalization in general. Valérie Amiraux and Javiera Araya-Moreno criticize the dominant trend among radicalization scholars on two related grounds: ‘‘they have adopted an
overly restrictive theoretical definition of the phenomenon: radicalization as an individual trajectory. Second, they largely make a methodological choice that excludes ex ante
an ethnographic approach’’ (108). Joyce Smith analyzes the very limited role of journalists in explaining religious radicalization to the general public. Edna Keeble describes
the work of the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security, an advisory body to the federal
Ministers of Public Safety and Justice, of which she was a member from 2005 to 2008.
Sean Norton and Afzal Upal criticize the US strategy of countering the selfunderstanding narratives of extremist religious groups, which is termed propaganda,
with its own counter-narrative, equally propaganda. In their conclusion, Bramadat and
Dawson call for further study of radicalization in the religious traditions not treated in
this book and more research on religious radicalization in Canada and internationally.
This book should be read and digested not just by academics but by everybody
concerned with religiously inspired terrorism. Although only one of the authors (Smith)
deals with Canadians who have travelled abroad to join al-Qaida, al-Shabab, ISIL and
other militant organizations, their findings and conclusions are as relevant for understanding these individuals as for understanding those who, like the Toronto 18, feel
called to perpetrate terrorist acts in Canada.
John R. Williams
Department of Philosophy,
Carleton University