The significance of an orientation towards the Islam for countering Islamist violent extremism in pedagogical work with Muslim youths

Abstract

This article looks at Youth Work, in which the Islamic religion is considered to be a contributing part of the pedagogical approaches to strengthen young people against the attractions of Islamist Violent Extremism. Interviews with pedagogical staff working in this field represent the empirical foundation. Resulting of the findings, the authors reconstruct three different types of orientations towards ways of dealing with religion in preventing and countering Islamist Violent Extremism. These three types portray an orientation towards the Islamic religion either, firstly, as an integral part of the young people’s identities and their bearings in the migration society, or secondly, as a perspective on their everyday practice and a supportive communitarization, or thirdly, as a means to unravel refutations of Violent Extremist ideologies from the scriptual foundations of Islam. Finally, the article will discuss such specific approaches of religious education as door openers into the young people’s realm of experience and as facilitators for trusting relationships. Furthermore, the discussion focuses on practitioners who convey a strong conceptualization of themselves as Muslims into their pedagogical work, while they may undervalue other qualities of their professional identities.