Violently pursuing the sacred. Reconceptualizing the religion/terrorism nexus: A comparative analysis of right-wing and jihadist terrorism

Abstract

This thesis tests the applicability of an alternative approach to analyze the ideological motivations of terrorists: the sacred values approach. After critically analyzing the label of “religious terrorism”, the sacred values approach is proposed as a way out of the problematic debate on the role of religion in terrorism. This entails a new focus on non-negotiable values, instead of a total focus on ideology or religion. To see whether it is a useful approach, the sacred values theoretical framework is applied to two groups with different ideological backgrounds: a religious (Islamic State) and a secular (National Alliance). Sacred values are extracted from primary sources from the two groups and are analyzed together with corresponding sacred practices. Finally, the sacred values and practices are compared and underlying processes and overlapping mechanisms are put forward. With this approach and an evaluation of it, this thesis aims to make a contribution to the debate about the role of religion in terrorism by finding patterns of sacred values that transcend different ideological backgrounds of terrorist groups. This is done in order to relativize and nuance the uniqueness of religion as motivation ideology for terrorists, going against scholars that do claim this uniqueness of religion.