The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far-Right Extremism

by Julia Ebner

Overview

The early twenty-first century has been defined by a rise in Islamist radicalisation and a concurrent rise in far right extremism. This book explores the interaction between the 'new' far right and Islamist extremists and considers the consequences for the global terror threat. Julia Ebner argues that far right and Islamist extremist narratives - 'The West is at war with Islam' and 'Muslims are at war with the West' - complement each other perfectly, making the two extremes rhetorical allies and building a spiralling torrent of hatred - 'The Rage'. By looking at extremist movements both online and offline, she shows how far right and Islamist extremists have succeeded in penetrating each other's echo chambers as a result of their mutually useful messages. Based on first-hand interviews, this book introduces readers to the world of reciprocal radicalisation and the hotbeds of extremism that have developed - with potentially disastrous consequences - in the UK, Europe and the US.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786722898
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	09/30/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Julia Ebner is a terrorism and extremism researcher based in London specialising in far-right extremism, reciprocal radicalisation and terrorism prevention initiatives. She is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and a Global Fellow at the Project for the Study of the 21st Century. She spent two years working for the world's first counter-extremism organisation Quilliam, where she led research projects on terrorism prevention for the European Commission and the Kofi Annan Foundation and gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on far-right extremism. In her role as the coordinator of the pan-European network Families Against Terrorism and Extremism (FATE), she carried out radicalisation prevention projects across Europe and North Africa. On the basis of her research, Julia advises parliamentary working groups, frontline workers and tech firms, speaks at international conferences and delivers workshops in schools and universities. She regularly writes for the Guardian and the Independent and gives interviews in English, German and French on the BBC, CNN, ZDF, ARD, France24, Al Jazeera, LBC and others.

Editorial Reviews

Selected by the Guardian as one of the best ten books for understanding the threat of terrorism” —The Guardian

“[Ebner] marshals facts well, identifies trends clearly, endeavours to contextualise her viewpoint and has a flair for the illustrative anecdote.” —Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

From the Publisher

There couldn't be a more appropriately timed book than The Rage by Julia Ebner. With an up close personal view of two sides of the extremist coin, Ebner lays out the nearly identical narratives between the extreme right wing and Islamists who align with Al Qaida and ISIS. Locked at the hip, these two groups are in a perpetual battle to destroy anyone who gets in the way of their ideology. Both groups use remarkably similar techniques to radicalize recruits preying up a need for identity, belonging, and purpose. The personal narrative breathes life into the voices of those who believe they are on a just cause even as that cause ends in terror for others. The Rage is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the interconnected nature of extremism.

Chris Sampson

Julia Ebner draws on the very latest evidence to deliver important new analysis of two seemingly opposing forms of extremism and their mutually reinforcing worldviews. The perpetrators of most terrorist and violent extremist acts committed in recent years have followed some form of radicalisation process; Ebner's book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the circumstances in which such radicalisation can take place."

Rob Wainwright

An excellent debut: informed, well-researched and thoughtful. Ebner traces the increasingly important interdependency of far-right and Islamist movements, and offers humane, smart ways through the impasse.”

Jamie Bartlett

An original and highly informative book on one of the core security issues of our time. The Rage demonstrates powerfully how apparently opposite strands of extremism feed so readily off each other and, in doing so, it illuminates the extent of the problems facing us. Essential reading.”

Paul Rogers

Julia Ebner has written a fine book, approaching the vexing topic of 'reciprocal radicalisation' with admirable ethnographic empathy. Crisply written, The Rage journeys through the leading and often intertwined forms of extremism today: jihadi Islamists and the far-right. The mirroring of these violent narratives is striking, and is revealed here through both eye-opening vignettes and wide-ranging empirical data. Without doubt, The Rage is the most important contribution to this burgeoning subject to date, and surely will be of use to scholars, policy-makers and the wider public alike.”

Matthew Feldman

This book brings alive the causes and consequences of far-right extremism and Islamist radicalism in our midst. These two forms of rising bigotry threaten to tear our societies apart — Ebner exposes them both and powerfully calls on us to defend liberal tolerance. The Rage is an excellent master course for those seeking to understand the growth of fanaticism.”

Ed Husain

The Rage reads like a novel but unfortunately its story is non-fiction: Islamist hotheads and those on the far-right polarise our societies and the moderates in the middle lose ground to populists who play politics with extremism.

Alex P. Schmid

Julia Ebner shows how Islamist and right-wing extremism are two sides of the same coin. Her analysis is compelling, insightful, and highly readable.”

Peter R. Neumann