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This article is a descriptive comparative quantitative content analysis of the construction of Islam and Muslims in 2006–2007 in four Swedish publications – the liberal newspaper Dagens Nyheter representing mainstream media, the Evangelical newspaper Dagen, the fundamentalist newspaper Världen idag representing the Christian right, and the journal SD-Kuriren, the official organ of the Sweden Democrats, a neo-nationalist party. The aim is to see where a chasm between those media that accept the presence of Muslims and Islam in Sweden, and those that do not, occurs. The results put the liberal Dagens Nyheter and the Evangelical Dagen on one side of the divide and the fundamentalist Världen idag and the neo-nationalist SD-Kuriren on the other. Världen idag and SD-Kuriren tend to describe Muslims and Islam as threatening, and 'our' elite as retreating.In these two media, Muslims are consistently described as aggressive and the cause of social and political problems. Finally, in both media, Muslims are related to negative behavior; good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded, while bad behavior is assumed to reflect their true character. Världen idag also claims that Islam is incompatible with democracy. Liberal Dagens Nyheter and Evangelical Dagen avoid describing Muslims and Islam as a threat and more often seek constructive solutions to different problems. Dagens Nyheter moreover describes conflicts between Muslim and Christian actors in political, not religious, terms. Dagen also sees Muslims and Christians alike as victims of the forces of secularization.

This article is a descriptive comparative quantitative content analysis of the construction of Islam and Muslims in 2006–2007 in four Swedish publications – the liberal newspaper Dagens Nyheter representing mainstream media, the Evangelical newspaper Dagen, the fundamentalist newspaper Världen idag representing the Christian right, and the journal SD-Kuriren, the official organ of the Sweden Democrats, a neo-nationalist party. The aim is to see where a chasm between those media that accept the presence of Muslims and Islam in Sweden, and those that do not, occurs. The results put the liberal Dagens Nyheter and the Evangelical Dagen on one side of the divide and the fundamentalist Världen idag and the neo-nationalist SD-Kuriren on the other. Världen idag and SD-Kuriren tend to describe Muslims and Islam as threatening, and 'our' elite as retreating. In these two media, Muslims are consistently described as aggressive and the cause of social and political problems. Finally, in both media, Muslims are related to negative behavior; good Muslim behavior is constantly disregarded, while bad behavior is assumed to reflect their true character. Världen idag also claims that Islam is incompatible with democracy. Liberal Dagens Nyheter and Evangelical Dagen avoid describing Muslims and Islam as a threat and more often seek constructive solutions to different problems. Dagens Nyheter moreover describes conflicts between Muslim and Christian actors in political, not religious, terms. Dagen also sees Muslims and Christians alike as victims of the forces of secularization.

This study examines how the hope for peace in the Middle East is articulated in Swedish Christian Zionist movements, both publicly and in private interviews with leaders and speakers. The article shows that Swedish Christian Zionist movements' public lectures and sermons rarely address political issues as peace. However, they do reiterate favourable images of Jews and occasionally negative images of Muslims and Arabs. It is apparent in interviews that these leaders and speakers are pessimistic regarding peace in the Middle East. For them, it is not attainable, and, in some cases, it is described as transcendent. In some interviews, Islam, Muslims, and Arabs – in some cases specific Muslim actors – are depicted as inferior, violent, and obstacles to peace. The favourable images of Jews reoccur, and they are instrumentalized, albeit infrequently. Lastly, Christians are repeatedly discouraged to support peace, since it might be false, or to demand Israeli territorial concessions.

This edited collection considers whether it is possible to discern how the level of ideology is affected by radicalisation. In other words: what happens in the minds of people before they decide to use political violence as means to attain their goals? Also this book asks: what has to happen in the minds of people in order to preclude them from using political violence as a way of attaining their goals? This volume unites scholars from several disciplines and perspectives from a number of different geographical, social and cultural contexts with the overarching aim to refine our understanding of what 'radicalisation' actually implies.

AbstractIn 2014, eight years prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian-backed separatists seized parts of the Ukrainian regions Luhansk and Donetsk. Shortly thereafter, thousands of Ukrainians voluntarily enrolled to various paramilitary battalions. Unlike the Right Sector's Volunteer Ukrainian Corps (RS VUC), almost all battalions were incorporated into Ukrainian official defence structures. Applying uncertainty-identity theory and based on interviews, observations, and documents, this study investigates the attractiveness of RS VUC prior to the 2022 war, motivating the fighters to join this organisation and to remain in it. The study found that fighters of RS VUC distrusted society, the wider population, and state authorities. RS VUC, with its high fighting morale, discipline, family-like relationships between fighters, as well as its clear ideology and boundaries between 'us' and 'them', were attractive to the fighters since its unambiguous group prototypes and high entitativity, reduced the fighters' self-uncertainty regarding their social identity in an uncertain environment. The findings also revealed that the fighters' choice to join RS VUC can be understood as a rational decision, since RS VUC's group entitativity provided the fighters with moral and emotional benefits, as well as maximised their chances of survival.

In December 2010, Sweden for the first time was hit by a home-grown Islamist terror attack.