What Motivates Muslims to Engage in Counterextremism? The Role of Identity, Efficacy, Emotions, and Morality

Western governments increasingly encourage Muslims to challenge Islamist extremism. However, the dominant academic and public discourse regards Muslims as deeply alienated and thus reluctant to do so. The article investigates motivations for Muslim counterextremism engagement and based on that formulates policy recommendations that are useful to government agencies that seek to mobilize Muslim communities to fight Islamist extremism. The analysis finds that Muslims are more likely to mobilize if governments highlight how Islamist extremism violates Islamic and universal values, how it negatively affects particular sections of Muslim communities, and how it can be successfully tackled by Muslim-based action.