New research by Collegium Civitas's DARE project finds right-wing youth tend to not be religious

The European Union-funded Dialogue on Radicalisation and Equality project highlights that right-wing radicals are far less likely to be actively religious than their Muslim counterparts. In Malta, the number of right-wingers which are believers stood at 13%, Great Britain – 24%, Poland – 27%, and Spain – 30%. Russia and Greece diverged here, where the numbers reached 89-90%. At the same time, religion remains a far more decisive factor among Islamic extremists. There, Norway and Germany scored 100% of all respondents, the Netherlands – 92%, Russia – 85%, and Great Britain – 79%. Belgium scored the lowest at 50%.

Religion as a tool for radicalisation

Meanwhile, researchers from several universities, including Manchester, Leiden and Oslo, as well as Poland's Collegium Civitas, argue that religion is not the source of violence. "The political interpretation of religion and its use as a tool increases the effectiveness of radicalisation and recruitment", says Dr Paulina Piasecka, who researches international terrorism and information warfare. "Religion is used to give violence a spiritual dimension, to circumvent the taboo that most cultures have against harming other human beings", the Collegium Civitas scientist points out.

Dr Piasecka notes that the DARE project helps governments and state institutions counteract terrorism. The research also shows that certain public policies work while others do not. Individual countries do not thus need to test all possible solutions and can instead focus on those that actually work.

About DARE

The Dialogue about Radicalisation and Equality project ran for four years and spanned more than a dozen countries, including – beyond Europe – Tunisia, Israel, and Turkey.

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