News and Blog Summary

This book takes a fresh and much-needed look at how religion intersects with radicalization and violent extremism in today’s world. While the events of 9/11 cemented certain assumptions—particularly about Islam’s role in religiously motivated violence—the landscape of extremism has become far more complex over the past two decades. Yet, much of the discourse around radicalization has remained stagnant. This book challenges those outdated narratives and offers a broader, more nuanced examination of how religion and religiosity are weaponized by various extremist movements.

Around the world, governments in liberal democracies are increasingly worried by the decline of public trust. The question that is often asked is why individuals and communities have declining trust in government institutions. However, the reverse question – whether governments trust communities, and if not, why not – is far less frequently explored. A relationship of trust involves one party trusting another, and that trust being returned. One key quality of trust is therefore reciprocity. For a successful trust relationship to be created and maintained it must be reciprocal. Trust must flow both ways – not just from communities to government but from government to communities.

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