Periodic Reporting for period 3 - GREASE (Radicalisation, Secularism and the Governance of Religion: Bringing together European and Asian Perspectives)
Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2022-09-30
In Europe, traditional paradigms of republicanism and multiculturalism are in crisis, and viable alternatives are yet to emerge in response to these convulsions, which include mass population mobility and violent radicalisation. Various European states are struggling to combine national and religious identities and to accept and navigate the presence, needs and rights of multiple ethnic and religious minorities in a way that allows them to coexist within state-based institutional systems and concepts of citizenship. The H2020 project Radicalisation, Secularism and the Governance of Religion: Bringing together European and Asian Perspectives (GREASE) critically investigated state-religion models, the governance of religious diversity both in and outside of the EU - specifically, in Europe’s Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood, in South and Southeast Asia and in the Asia-Pacific region – with the aim of proposing constructive conceptual frameworks and formulating innovative policy ideas that can illuminate potential models and solutions. GREASE sought to better understand the connection between state-religion relations, governance of religious diversity and religious radicalization processes, in order to inform European efforts to prevent and counter religious radicalization. In doing so, we paid special attention to the entanglement between the religious dimension, national and international politics in ways that exacerbate populist and nationalistic dynamics, which is one of the most pressing issues of our times.
The GREASE project produced the following main outputs and outcomes:
A mapping and background analysis of 26 countries around the world and the ways in which they govern religious diversity and address religiously inspired violent radicalisation covering different parts of Europe including Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Asia Pacific.
A set of State-Religion Governance Indicators with accompanying toolkit and country assessment reports as well as a Comparative Insights white paper which assesses the robustness and usefulness of our indicators.
Two comparative reports analysing state-religion relations and violent religious radicalisation in different world regions. The reports pull together the results of research conducted by our consortium partners in over 20 countries covering Europe, the MENA region, Asia and Australia. Addressing two crucial dimensions of the GREASE project, our comparative reports consider institutions, norms, policies and practices in regions with diverse historical experiences and cultural traditions.
We also issued four Policy Briefs addressing the following issues
Preventing Religiously Inspired Violent Radicalisation Among Moroccan Youth: Barriers and Opportunities
Preventing Religiously Motivated Radicalisation: Lessons from Southeastern Europe
Managing Religious Diversity and Radicalisation in Malaysia and Indonesia
The Power of Positive Connections: Western European Approaches to State-Religion Relations and Radicalisation
The main publications of the project include an
International Handbook on Good Practices for Building Resilience Against Violent Religious Radicalisation (in open access) edited by Hisham Hellyer, and the Routledge Handbook on the Governance of Religious Diversity edited by Anna Triandafyllidou and Tina Magazzini.
A Special Issue on Developing a framework for a global comparative analysis of the governance of religious diversity guest edited by Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy, published in Religion, State and Society, bringing together contributions from several project teams, presenting our new theoretical approach on the governance of state religion relations in different world regions.
A book, edited by Tina Magazzini and Georges Fahmi, on Causes and Consequences of the Governance of Islam and Violent Radicalization, in press with Routledge, London. This book addresses the relationship between governing religion and religiously inspired violent radicalisation in Muslim majority countries across the MENA region and southeast Asia as well as Muslim minority countries in Europe.
A special issue entitled Dynamics of the governance of religious diversity in Southeastern and Central Eastern Europe and Russia guest edited by Egdunas Racius and Lily Yakova, to appear in Ethnicities in 2024
A volume edited by Michele Grossman and Hisham Hellyer on Rethinking Religion and Radicalisation: Terrorism and Violence Twenty Years after 9/11, published by Bloomsbury, London in 2023.
A mapping and background analysis of 26 countries around the world and the ways in which they govern religious diversity and address religiously inspired violent radicalisation covering different parts of Europe including Russia, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Asia Pacific.
A set of State-Religion Governance Indicators with accompanying toolkit and country assessment reports as well as a Comparative Insights white paper which assesses the robustness and usefulness of our indicators.
Two comparative reports analysing state-religion relations and violent religious radicalisation in different world regions. The reports pull together the results of research conducted by our consortium partners in over 20 countries covering Europe, the MENA region, Asia and Australia. Addressing two crucial dimensions of the GREASE project, our comparative reports consider institutions, norms, policies and practices in regions with diverse historical experiences and cultural traditions.
We also issued four Policy Briefs addressing the following issues
Preventing Religiously Inspired Violent Radicalisation Among Moroccan Youth: Barriers and Opportunities
Preventing Religiously Motivated Radicalisation: Lessons from Southeastern Europe
Managing Religious Diversity and Radicalisation in Malaysia and Indonesia
The Power of Positive Connections: Western European Approaches to State-Religion Relations and Radicalisation
The main publications of the project include an
International Handbook on Good Practices for Building Resilience Against Violent Religious Radicalisation (in open access) edited by Hisham Hellyer, and the Routledge Handbook on the Governance of Religious Diversity edited by Anna Triandafyllidou and Tina Magazzini.
A Special Issue on Developing a framework for a global comparative analysis of the governance of religious diversity guest edited by Tariq Modood and Thomas Sealy, published in Religion, State and Society, bringing together contributions from several project teams, presenting our new theoretical approach on the governance of state religion relations in different world regions.
A book, edited by Tina Magazzini and Georges Fahmi, on Causes and Consequences of the Governance of Islam and Violent Radicalization, in press with Routledge, London. This book addresses the relationship between governing religion and religiously inspired violent radicalisation in Muslim majority countries across the MENA region and southeast Asia as well as Muslim minority countries in Europe.
A special issue entitled Dynamics of the governance of religious diversity in Southeastern and Central Eastern Europe and Russia guest edited by Egdunas Racius and Lily Yakova, to appear in Ethnicities in 2024
A volume edited by Michele Grossman and Hisham Hellyer on Rethinking Religion and Radicalisation: Terrorism and Violence Twenty Years after 9/11, published by Bloomsbury, London in 2023.
GREASE issued two Massive Open Online courses (MOOCs) on Governing Religion: Global Challenges and Comparative Approaches; and on Religion, Radicalisation, Resilience; which are free and accessible tools to learn and reflect upon the compelling issues of religious diversity, resilience, and violent radicalisation which attracted over 6,500 learners from all five continents.
The project co-curated a scientific blogging space entitled Global Extremes in partnership with Open Democracy which published more than 60 blog articles and attracted over 200,000 readers giving wide visibility to the project’s results.
The two documentary films that the project created presenting people’s first-hand experiences with religious belonging, national identity, and radicalization, are publicly available as teaching resources both on a dedicated website as well as on YouTube. They have also been presented at a number of festivals
The GREASE State-Religion Governance Indicators are available from the project’s web site and include a set of visualizations to make the research results more accessible to civil society and stakeholders.
The project co-curated a scientific blogging space entitled Global Extremes in partnership with Open Democracy which published more than 60 blog articles and attracted over 200,000 readers giving wide visibility to the project’s results.
The two documentary films that the project created presenting people’s first-hand experiences with religious belonging, national identity, and radicalization, are publicly available as teaching resources both on a dedicated website as well as on YouTube. They have also been presented at a number of festivals
The GREASE State-Religion Governance Indicators are available from the project’s web site and include a set of visualizations to make the research results more accessible to civil society and stakeholders.