Youth, extremism and the liminoid. Right-wing antiislamist versus radical Islam in Norway.

Abstract

As a life phase, youth embodies both vulnerability and a sensibility for the power relations in which they find themselves. At times such a state is reflected in an ability to point out, to "feel", and to reflect upon contemporary society's "sore spots". This ability sometimes leads to extreme political positions and attitudes, but also to the pointing out of deep societal problems and challenges. On such a background, the article will explore and compare the processes through which some young actors in right wing milieus, on the one hand, and young Muslims, on the other, become radical and relate to the extremist "poles" of both these strands in today's multicultural Norway. The informants are members of NDL (Norwegian Defence League), SIAN (Stop the Islamisation of Norway) and Vigrid (a declared Neo-Nazi group with Odinist overtones) on the right; they are more scattered on the Islamic side, but relate to Salafism, in both violent and non-violent forms. To what extent may these processes of radicalisation be seen as expressions of youth cultural rebellion, sensitive societal insight or as a generation gap? The analysis builds on Victor Turner's conceptualisation of what he terms "the liminoid" (Turner 1974).