Risk of Romani Radicalization in the Balkans: Freeing the Shackles of a Marginalized Identity

Abstract

This paper investigates the susceptibility of the Romani minority in the Balkans to radicalization, focusing on the Salafi community in a Serbian city. It provides insights into the experiences of a marginalized group that is often overlooked in research on radicalization. Despite the community’s commitment to nonviolence, stigmatization and exclusion incentivize individuals to seek alternative forms of belonging. However, adopting Salafism at the cost of abandoning their culture can increase their vulnerability to radicalization. We present a preliminary model of the marginalized identity transformation to illustrate this identity shift. The article uses ethnography and narrative analysis to investigate the phenomenon.

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our gratitude to our research assistant, Damjan Marković, for transcribing the interviews and translating them from Serbian and Albanian into English. We are also incredibly thankful to Mia Bloom, Sophia Moskalenko, and Leena Malkki for their invaluable comments on the draft of this paper we received at the 2023 CES International Conference of Europeanists in Reykjavik. Finally, we would like to thank Julian Droogan, Suraj Lakhani, and Emil A. Souleimanov for their helpful advice on the publication process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See: David M. Crowe, “Muslim Roma in the Balkans,” Nationalities Papers 28, no. 1 (2000): 93–128. Jelena Čvorović, “The Differential Impact of Religion on Self-Reported Health among Serbian Roma Women,” Journal of Religion and Health 58, no. 6 (2019): 2047–64. Olivier Roy and Arolda Elbasani, eds., The Revival of Islam in the Balkans: From Identity to Religiosity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Yelis Erolova, “Cases of Contemporary Re-Islamization among Roma in Bulgaria,” Romani Studies 31, no. 2 (2021): 211–30. Eyal Ginio, “Neither Muslims nor Zimmis: The Gypsies (Roma) in the Ottoman State,” Romani studies 14, no. 2 (2004): 117–44. Hristo Kyuchukov, “Code-switching among Muslim Roms in Bulgaria,” Journal of the Sociology of Language 179 (2006): 41–51. Hristo Kyuchukov, “Language Use and Identity among Migrant Roma,” East European Journal of Psycholinguistics 6, no. 1 (2019): 47–57. Dragana Radisavljević-Ćiparizović, “Mixed Pilgrimage in Serbia: the Case of Two Sanctuaries (Đunis and Tekije),” Gosudarstvo, Religiia, TSerkov v Rossii i za Rubezhom 32, no. 2 (2014): 139–60.

2 Rumiana Budjeva, “Radicalization and Ethnic Minorities in Bulgaria,” Knowledge – International Journal 19, no. 1 (2017): 359–65. Marija Djorić, “The Attitudes of Roma Women on Violent Extremism and Radicalization in Serbia: A Preliminary Study,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 27, no. 2 (2021): 213–25. Rositsa Dzhekova and Nadya Stoynova, “From Criminals to Terrorists and Back,” (Quarterly Report Vol 2: Bulgaria, Globsec, Bratislava, 2018), https://www.globsec.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/GPI-bulgaria-QUARTERLYREPORT.pdf (accessed 11 September 2023). Mila Mancheva and Rositsa Dzhekova, “Risks of Islamist Radicalisation in Bulgaria: A Case Study in the Iztok Neighbourhood of the City of Pazardzhik,” (CSD Social Studies Papers, Center for the Study of Democracy, Sofia, 2017), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314984086_Risks_of_Islamist_Radicalisation_in_Bulgaria_A_Case_Study_in_the_Iztok_Neighbourhood_of_the_City_of_Pazardzhik (accessed 11 September 2023).

3 Djorić, “Nationalism and Ethnic Politics,” 218.

4 Markéta Kocmanová, “Belonging and Conflict Avoidance: Towards Understanding the Resilience of the Romani Against Radicalisation,” Journal for Deradicalization 34 (2023): 85–114.

5 In this paper, we adopt the term “interlocutors” as a semantic alternative to actor-descriptions like “interviewees” or “research participants.” These actor-descriptions are commonly employed in ethnographic studies, but the term interlocutors aligns better with the conventions in the fields of Critical Discourse Studies and Sociolinguistics. See: Michael Bamberg, Deborah Schiffrin, and Anna De Fina, eds., Selves and Identities in Narrative and Discourse (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007).

6 Dzhekova and Stoynova, “Quarterly Report Vol 2: Bulgaria,” 6. Mancheva and Dzhekova, “Risks of Islamist Radicalisation in Bulgaria,” 18.

7 See: Julija Sardelić, “Romani Minorities and Uneven Citizenship Access in the Post-Yugoslav Space,” Ethnopolitics 14, no. 2 (2015): 159–79. Rainer Schulze, “Unheard Voices: Roma and the Kosovo War,” Култура/Culture 5 (2014): 131–40.

8 See: Renata Franc and Tomislav Pavlović, “Inequality and Radicalisation: Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies,” Terrorism and Political Violence 35, no. 4 (2023): 785–810. Serge Garcet, “Understanding the Psychological Aspects of the Radicalisation Process: A Sociocognitive approach,” Forensic Sciences Research 6, no. 2 (2021): 115–23.

9 See: Bart Schuurman, “Non-Involvement in Terrorist Violence,” Perspectives on Terrorism 14, no. 6 (2020): 14–26.

10 See: Eylem Kanol, “Contexts of Radicalization of Jihadi Foreign Fighters from Europe,” Perspectives on Terrorism 16, no. 3 (2022): 4–21. Álvaro Vicente, “Social Ties and Jihadist Participation: A Mixed-methods Approach to the Differential Recruitment of Radicalized Youth in Spain,” Terrorism and Political Violence 35, no. 4 (2023): 988–1006.

11 Interlocutor 19. See also: Djorić, “Nationalism and Ethnic Politics,” 222. Predrag Petrović and Isidora Stakić, “Western Balkans Extremism Research Forum – Serbia Report,” (British Council, April 2018), https://www.britishcouncil.rs/sites/default/files/erf_report_serbia_2018.pdf (accessed 11 September 2023).

12 See: Donald Holbrook and John Horgan, “Terrorism and Ideology: Cracking the Nut,” Perspectives on Terrorism 13, no. 6 (2019): 2–15.

13 See: Randy Borum, “Radicalization into Violent Extremism I: A Review of Social Science Theories,” Journal of Strategic Security 4, no. 4 (2011): 7–36. Mohammed Hafez and Creighton Mullins, “The Radicalization Puzzle: A Theoretical Synthesis of Empirical Approaches to Homegrown Extremism,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 38, no. 11 (2015): 958–75. Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko, “Understanding Political Radicalization: The Two-Pyramids Model,” American Psychologist 72, no. 3 (2017): 205–16. Marc Sageman, Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-first Century (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). Max Taylor and John Horgan, “A Conceptual Framework for Addressing Psychological Process in the Development of the Terrorist,” Terrorism and Political Violence 18, no. 4 (2006): 585–601.

14 Alessandro Orsini, “What Everybody Should Know about Radicalization and the DRIA Model,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 46, no. 1 (2023): 68–100. Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). Sageman, Leaderless Jihad, 86.

15 Orsini, “Studies in Conflict and Terrorism,” 90.

16 See: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Madeleine Blackman, “Fluidity of the Fringes: Prior Extremist Involvement as a Radicalization Pathway,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 45, no. 7 (2022): 555–78.

17 Hafez and Mullins, “Studies in Conflict and Terrorism,” 961.

18 Arie W. Kruglanski, Jocelyn J. Bélanger, and Rohan Gunaratna, The Three Pillars of Radicalization: Needs, Narratives, and Networks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). Arie W. Kruglanski, Erica Molinario, Katarzyna Jasko, David Webber, N. Pontus Leander, and Antonio Pierro, “Significance-Quest Theory,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 17, no. 4 (2022): 1050–71.

19 Sophia Moskalenko, “Conceptualizing Radicalization in Comparative Context,” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (8 March 2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.013.661

20 Orsini, “Studies in Conflict and Terrorism,” 90. See also: Quintan Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005).

21 See: Jonathan Githens-Mazer, “Islamic Radicalisation among North Africans in Britain,” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 10, no. 4 (2008): 550–70. Basia Spalek, “Radicalisation, De-radicalisation and Counter-radicalisation in Relation to Families: Key Challenges for Research, Policy and Practice,” Security Journal 29 (2016): 39–52.

22 Kocmanová, “Journal for Deradicalization,” 91.

23 Michael Wolfowicz, Yael Litmanovitz, David Weisburd, and Badi Hasisi, “A Field-wide Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Putative Risk and Protective Factors for Radicalization Outcomes,” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 36 (2020): 407–47.

24 Orsini, “Studies in Conflict and Terrorism,” 90.

25 John M. Berger, Extremism (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series, 2018), 27.

26 See: Sarah Lyons-Padilla, Michele J. Gelfand, Hedieh Mirahmadi, Mehreen Farooq, and Marieke Van Egmond, “Belonging Nowhere: Marginalization & Radicalization Risk among Muslim Immigrants,” Behavioral Science & Policy 1, no. 2 (2015): 1–12. Bertjan Doosje, Fathali M. Moghaddam, Arie W. Kruglanski, Arjan De Wolf, Liesbeth Mann, and Allard R. Feddes. “Terrorism, Radicalization and De-radicalization.” Current Opinion in Psychology 11 (2016): 79–84.

27 See: Dina Al Raffie, “Social Identity Theory for Investigating Islamic Extremism in the Diaspora,” Journal of Strategic Security 6, no. 4 (2013): 67–91. Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004). Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising.

28 See: Michael Hogg, “Social Identity Theory,” in Understanding Peace and Conflict through Social Identity Theory: Contemporary Global Perspectives, eds. Shelley McKeown, Reeshma Haji, and Neil Ferguson (Cham: Springer, 2016), pp. 3–18.

29 See: Neil Ferguson, and James McAuley, “Dedicated to the Cause: Identity Development and Violent Extremism,” European Psychologist 26, no. 1 (2021): 6–14.

30 See: Marc Sageman, Misunderstanding Terrorism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017).

31 See: John M. Berger, “Extremist Construction of Identity: How Escalating Demands for Legitimacy Shape and Define In-Group and Out-Group Dynamics” (The Hague: ICCT Research Paper 8(7), 2017), 4.

32 See: Michael Hogg, “From Uncertainty to Extremism: Social Categorization and Identity Processes,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 23, no. 5 (2014): 338–42.

33 Hogg, “Current Directions in Psychological Science,” 339.

34 See: Michael A. Hogg, “Uncertainty and Extremism: Identification with High Entitativity Groups under Conditions of Uncertainty,” in The Psychology of Group Perception: Perceived Variability, Entitativity, and Essentialism, ed. Vincent Yzerbyt, Charles M. Judd, and Olivier Corneille (London: Psychology Press. 2004), 401–418. Ferguson, and McAuley, “European Psychologist,” 8.

35 See: Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke, “Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory,” Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, no. 3 (2000): 224–37.

36 See: Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Robert Lambert, “Why Conventional Wisdom on Radicalization Fails: The Persistence of a Failed Discourse,” International Affairs 86, no. 4 (2010): 889–901. Bruce G. Link and Jo C. Phelan, “Conceptualizing Stigma,” Annual Review of Sociology 27, no. 1 (2001): 363–85.

37 Al Raffie, “Journal of Strategic Security,” 85.

38 “Ibid.,” 84.

39 Kocmanová, “Journal for Deradicalization,” 96.

40 See: Gerard Delanty, Ruth Wodak, and Paul Jones, eds., Identity, Belonging and Migration (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011). John Richardson, Michał Krzyżanowski, David Machin, and Ruth Wodak, eds., Advances in Critical Discourse Studies, 1st ed. (Oxon: Routledge, 2016). Michał Krzyżanowski, The Discursive Construction of European Identities A Multi-Level Approach to Discourse and Identity in the Transforming European Union (London: Peter Lang GmbH, 2010). Michał Krzyżanowski and Ruth Wodak, “Multiple Identities, Migration and Belonging: ‘Voices of Migrants’,” in Identity Trouble: Critical Discourse and Contested Identities, ed. Carmen Caldas-Coulthard and Rick Iedema (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2008), 95–119. Ruth Wodak, The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual, 1st ed. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

41 See: Nira Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations (Los Angleles, CA: Sage, 2011).

42 Wodak, The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual.

43 See: Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion, Tenth Anniversary Edition (New York: Routledge, 2012).

44 See: Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper, “Beyond ‘Identity’,” Theory and Society 29, no. 1 (2000): 1–47.

45 See: Anne-Marie Fortier, Migrant Belongings: Memory, Space, Identity (New York: Routledge, 2000). Elspeth Probyn, Outside Belongings (New York: Routledge, 1996).

46 Krzyżanowski, The Discursive Construction of European Identities, 173–6. Krzyżanowski and Wodak, Multiple Identities, Migration and Belonging, 100–3.

47 In our empirical analysis, we do not address the category of membership, as it was not related to our research objective, but we include it here to introduce the theoretical framework of modes of belonging in its entirety.

48 See: Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis, eds., Racialized Boundaries: Race, Nation, Gender, Colour and Class and the Anti-Racist Struggle (London: Routledge, 1993). Nira Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2011). Nira Yuval-Davis, Kalpana Kannabiran, and Ulrike Vieten, eds., The Situated Politics of Belonging (London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2006).

49 Krzyżanowski and Wodak, Multiple Identities, Migration and Belonging, 95, 115.

50 See: Teun A. van Dijk, Discourse and Context: A Sociocognitive Approach (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Teun A. van Dijk, Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Introduction (London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 1998).

51 Van Dijk, Discourse and Context: A Sociocognitive Approach, 57–8.

52 See: Michelle Dugas and Arie W. Kruglanski, “The Quest for Significance Model of Radicalization: Implications for the Management of Terrorist Detainees,” Behavioral Sciences & the Law 32, no. 3 (2014): 423–9.

53 Hogg, Current Directions in Psychological Science.

54 See: McCauley and Moskalenko, American Psychologist. Marc Sageman, Turning to Political Violence: The Emergence of Terrorism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). David Snow and Scott Byrd, “Ideology, Framing Processes, and Islamic Terrorist Movements,” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 12, no. 2 (2007): 119–36.

55 See: Lorne Dawson, “Bringing Religiosity Back In,” Perspectives on Terrorism 15, no. 2 (2021): 2–22.

56 See: James Khalil and Lorne L. Dawson, “Understanding Involvement in Terrorism and Violent Extremism: Theoretical Integration through the ABC Model,” Terrorism and Political Violence (2023): 1–16.

57 See: Holbrook and Horgan, Perspectives on Terrorism. Bart Schuurman, “The Role of Beliefs in Motivating Involvement in Terrorism,” Perspectives on Terrorism 15, no. 5 (2021): 85–92.

58 See: Thomas Hegghammer, “The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters: Islam and the Globalization of Jihad,” International Security 35, no. 3 (2010): 53–94. Gilles Kepel, Roots of Radical Islam (London: Saqi Books Publishers, 2005). Gilles Kepel, Terror in France: The Rise of Jihad in the West (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017). Roel Meijer, “Towards a Political Islam” (Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael,” 2009), https://www.clingendael.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/20090700_cdsp_paper_meijer.pdf (accessed 13 September 2023). Olivier Roy, Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising. Wiktorowicz, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

59 See: See: Jelena Beslin and Marija Ignjatijević, “Balkan Foreign Fighters: From Syria to Ukraine” (European Union Institute for Security Studies, 2017), https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep06759.pdf (accessed 13 September 2023). Maria Eleni Koppa, “Turkey, Gulf States and Iran in the Western Balkans: More than the Islamic Factor?,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 29, no. 2 (2021): 251–63. Asya Metodieva, Foreign Fighters and Radical Influencers: Radical Milieus in the Postwar Balkans (New York: Routledge, 2023). Cara Richardson, Katherine M. Berlouis, and Paul A. Cameron, “Radicalisation of Young Adults in the Balkan States: Counter-Measures, Healthcare Provision, and Community Involvement,” Journal for Deradicalization 11 (2017): 87–111. Aristotle Tziampiris, “Assessing Islamic Terrorism in the Western Balkans: The State of the Debate,” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 11, no. 2 (2009): 209–19.

60 See: Gilles Kepel, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). Roy, Globalized Islam. Wiktorowicz, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

61 See: Wiktorowicz, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

62 See: Shiraz Maher, Salafi-jihadism: The History of an Idea (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 7.

63 Maher, Salafi-jihadism: The History of an Idea, 11.

64 See: Samir Amghar, “Quietism versus Jihadism: The Need to Rethink Contemporary Salafism,” Contemporary Islam 17 (2023): 205–21.

65 Holbrook and Horgan, Perspectives on Terrorism, 7.

66 See: Paul Hedges, “Radicalisation: Examining a Concept, its Use and Abuse”“Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 9, no. 10 (2017): 12–18. Roy, Jihad and Death.

67 Wiktorowicz, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 210.

68 Olivie Roy, “Terrorism and Deculturation,” in The Roots of Terrorism, ed. Louise Richardson (New York and London: Routledge, 2006), 164.

69 See: Roy, Globalized Islam. Wiktorowicz, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

70 Wiktorowicz, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 210.

71 As a part of a larger-scale project into the intersection of the Romani and radicalisation 40 in-depth interviews, also with the Romani in non-Salafi communities, were conducted during a field trip to Serbia in September 2021.

72 Ksenia Trofimova, Ksenia, “Transforming Islam among Roma Communities in the Balkans: A Case of Popular Religiosity,” Nationalities Papers 45, no. 4 (2017): 598–612.

73 See: Djorić, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. Petrović and Stakić, Western Balkans Extremism Research Forum – Serbia Report.

74 See: Stephane Laederich, “Kosovo 2006: The Current Situation of Roma”(Rroma Foundation, 2006), https://www.rroma.org/reports/downloads/kosovo_2006.pdf (accessed 13 September 2023).

75 See: Claudia Lichnofsky, “Ashkali and Egyptians in Kosovo: New Ethnic Identifications as a Result of Exclusion during Nationalist Violence from 1990 till 2010,” Romani Studies 23, no. 1 (2013): 29–59. Rainer Schulze, “Unheard Voices: Roma and the Kosovo War,” Култура/Culture 5 (2014): 131–40.

76 We are fully aware that the exonym ‘gypsy’ is considered pejorative in most countries with Romani minorities and we are against its use. However, we decided to use it in this study when the lived experiences of the research participants are discussed or when it functionally supports our argument about externally imposed stigmatization.

77 See: Christopher Hart, ed., Critical Discourse Studies in Context and Cognition (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011). Teun A. van Dijk, Discourse and Context: A Sociocognitive Approach.

78 Donald T. Campbell, “The Informant in Quantitative Research,” American Journal of Sociology 60, no. 4 (1955): 339.

79 See: Teun A. van Dijk, “Discourse Semantics and Ideology,” Discourse & Society 6, no. 2 (1995): 243–89. Teun A. van Dijk, Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Introduction (London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 1998). Luisa Martín Rojo and Teun A. Van Dijk, “‘There Was a Problem, and it Was Solved!”: Legitimating the Expulsion of ‘Illegal’ Migrants in Spanish Parliamentary Discourse,” Discourse & Society 8, no. 4 (1997): 523–66.

80 See: Schiffrin and De Fina, Selves and Identities in Narrative and Discourse. Anna De Fina, Identity in Narrative: A Study of Immigrant Discourse (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003). Deborah Schiffrin, Anna De Fina, and Anastasia Nylund, Telling Stories: Language, Narrative, and Social Life (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2010). Chris Weedon, Identity and Culture: Narratives of Difference and Belonging (New York: Open University Press, 2004).

81 The excerpts consist of the transcripts of the semi-structured interviews with the interlocutors.

82 A more detailed overview of themes identified as a part of narrative analysis is provided in the findings section.

83 Tatjana Perič, and Martin Demirovski, “Unwanted: The Exodus of Kosovo Roma (1998–2000),” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 13, no. 2 (2000): 84.

84 See: Ranier Mattern, “Roma of Kosovo - Escape, Return, or Stay?” (Report, Social Inclusion and Cultural Identity of Roma Communities in South-Eastern Europe, Swisspeace, 2011), https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep11110.10.pdf (accessed 13 September 2023). Perič, and Demirovski, Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Schulze, Култура/Culture.

85 See: Claude Cahn, “Justice for Kosovo,” Roma Rights Quarterly 3–4 (2005): 3–9. Schulze, Култура/Culture.

86 Schulze, Култура/Culture, 132.

87 Perič and Demirovski, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 88. Enkelejda Sula-Raxhimi, “Reading the Present through the Past: The Roma in Postwar Kosovo,” Nationalities Papers 47, no. 2 (2019): 222.

88 See: Perič and Demirovski, Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Sula-Raxhimi, Nationalities Papers.

89 Schulze, Култура/Culture.

90 Liv Feijen, “Developing a Strategic Vision for Protection of the Internally Displaced-The Case of Roma in Serbia and Montenegro,” Refugee Survey Quarterly 24, no. 3 (2005): 112.

91 Schulze, Култура/Culture, 135.

92 Sardelić, Ethnopolitics, 159. See also: Elizabeth F. Cohen, Semi-Citizenship in Democratic Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

93 Sardelić, Ethnopolitics, 163.

94 See: Sardelić, Ethnopolitics. Schulze, Култура/Culture.

95 Schulze, Култура/Culture, 134.

96 Kocmanová, Journal for Deradicalization, 85–114.

97 Interlocutors 6, 7, 8, 15.

98 Interlocutor 4.

99 To ensure a satisfactory level of anonymization, generic names have been used in place of specific names for all locations referenced by the interlocutor.

100 The interlocutor refers to the verse from Matthew 21:22, see: King James Bible, The Holy Bible: New Testament (Albany: AGES Software, 1996), 56.

101 Orsini, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 90.

102 Maher, Salafi-jihadism: The History of an Idea, 7.

103 See: Sardelić, Ethnopolitics. Schulze, Култура/Culture.

104 See: Githens-Mazer and Lambert, International Affairs. Hogg, Social Identity Theory. Orsini, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Spalek, Security Journal. Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising.

105 Hogg, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 341.

106 Interlocutor 19. Djorić, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. Petrović and Stakić, Western Balkans Extremism Research Forum.

107 Nemanja Džuverović and Věra Stojarová, eds. Peace and Security in the Western Balkans: A Local Perspective (New York: Routledge, 2023). Ilhan Eminov, “Is The Western Balkans a Favorable Region for Recruitment of Jihadists?,” KNOWLEDGE-International Journal 32, no. 1 (2019): 187–91.

108 See: Al Raffie, Journal of Strategic Security. Githens-Mazer and Lambert, International Affairs. Hogg, Uncertainty and Extremism. Hogg, Current Directions in Psychological Science. Lyons-Padilla, Gelfand, Mirahmadi, Farooq, and Van Egmond, Behavioral Science & Policy. Roy, Globalized Islam. Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising.

109 Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, “The Putative Effect of Identity on Extremist Radicalization: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2023): 1–42. Michael King and Donald M. Taylor, “The Radicalization of Homegrown Jihadists: A Review of Theoretical Models and Social Psychological Evidence,” Terrorism and Political Violence 23, no. 4 (2011): 602–22.

110 Conor Seyle, and Clayton Besaw, “Identity, Extremism, and (De)Radicalization,” in The Psychology of Extremism, ed. Katherine V. Aumer (Cham: Springer, 2021), 47–81. William B. Swann, Ángel Gómez, D. Conor Seyle, J. Francisco Morales, and Carmen Huici. “Identity Fusion: The Interplay of Personal and Social Identities in Extreme Group Behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96, no. 5 (2009): 995–1011.

111 Echelmeyer, Slotboom, and Weerman, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. Seth J. Schwartz, Curtis S. Dunkel, and Alan S. Waterman, “Terrorism: An Identity Theory Perspective,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 32, no. 6 (2009): 537–59.

112 See: Tim Gosling, “Roma Pushed to Turn on Ukrainian Refugees in Czech Republic,” Al Jazeera, 14 August 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/8/14/roma-pushed-to-turn-on-ukrainian-refugees-in-czech-republic (accessed 13 September 2023). Una Hajdari, “Why is the Czech Republic Pitting Roma and Ukrainians against Each Other,” Euronews, 10 July 2023, https://www.euronews.com/2023/07/08/why-is-the-czech-republic-pitting-roma-and-ukrainians-against-each-other (accessed 13 September 2023).

113 An official of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic in a telephone conversation with one of the authors, 3 August 2023.

114 An official from The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic in an official meeting with one of the authors, 2 August 2023.

115 Eric B. Hodges, “‘Storming the Castle.’ Examining the Motivations of the Veterans Who Participated in the Capitol Riots,” Journal of Veterans Studies 7, no. 3 (2021): 46–59. Daniel Koehler, “From Superiority to Supremacy: Exploring the Vulnerability of Military and Police Special Forces to Extreme Right Radicalization,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2022): 1–24.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Charles University grant projects GA UK No. 442120 and GA UK No. 1313620.