Simon Polinder “Religious leaders building resilience to violent extremism in Nigeria and Kenya”

"Religious leaders building resilience to violent extremism in Nigeria and Kenya" by Simon Polinder.

This is a recording from the Resilience against Extremism workshop in Amsterdam, 26-27 September 2024. It is part of a series of workshops facilitated by the Extreme Beliefs: The Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism project at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 851613).
https://extremebeliefs.com/

Organizers: Jakob Ohlhorst, Rik Peels, and Anna Haase.

Abstract:
Resilience is the ability and the process of individuals and communities to adapt to, deal with and recover from challenging circumstances and to stick together as a community. In African societies, religious leaders are crucial players when it comes to resilience. Based on more than 70 interviews with religious leaders in Nigeria as well as in Kenia, this workshop will set out what these religious leaders do to deal with violent extremism (VE).

Religious leaders contribute to resilience by educating people (youth) true or peaceful religion and by refuting extremist interpretations. They create space for dialogue, and advance religious tolerance, also called Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). Religious leaders participate in and organize peace programs on various levels: intra-religious, inter-religious and extra-religious. This all takes place in a context in which the media is out for sensation and lacks a professional attitude of reporting factually. The government worsens resilience because it does not provide proper education, leading to misunderstanding of religion and increasing vulnerability of unemployed youth to become recruited. The government also fails in her call to do justice, in general, but also in countering violent extremism. This leads to high perceived injustices, low expectations regarding the government and feelings of powerlessness or tendency to radicalize.

This research in Africa demonstrates that resilience of individuals and communities are important, but that they are dependent on the role of other institutions and political structures. Also, many VE incidents in Africa are (seen as) very complex, messy and the result of various dynamics and therefore resilience is also a dynamic, multi-layered phenomenon.

Information about the speaker:
Simon Polinder Ph.D is postdoctoral researcher Reimagining Religion, Security and Social Transformation at the Department History of International Relations at Utrecht University. His current research is on religious leaders and their response to violent extremism in Kenya and Nigeria. He studied at Utrecht University, VU University Amsterdam and Georgetown University. He is the co-editor of the volume Christian Faith, Philosophy and International Relations: the Lamb and the Wolf (Brill, 2019). His dissertation received an Honorable Mention for the Mark Juergensmeyer Best Dissertation Award 2023. He recently published Towards A New Christian Political Realism. The Amsterdam School of Philosophy and the Role of Religion in International Relations (Routledge, 2024)