Family Matters: A Preliminary Framework for Understanding Family Influence on Islamist Radicalization

This explorative study presents some theoretical reflections on the influence that family may exert in the context of Islamist radicalization. In doing so, a new preliminary framework consisting of four levels of analysis is introduced and its relevance illustrated using examples from the Palestinian, Indonesian, Chechen and, more broadly, Western context. If sufficiently adaptive, the proposed framework may not only raise the analyst’s awareness of the “bigger picture” in which family’s influence on radicalization should be investigated. It can also serve as a useful analytical model to uncover certain trends and characteristics of family’s attitudes toward terrorism in specific contexts, rendering the framework valuable from both a theoretical and practical analysis.