Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2010 - Mimesis and the Globalization of Religious Terror
Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2010 - Mimesis and the Globalization of Religious Terror
Moderator: Suzanne Ross, Raven Foundation
Speaker: James W. Jones, Professor of Religion at Rutgers University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College, New York
Respondent: Charles Selengut, Drew University
James W. Jones discusses the ways media-driven, mimetic recruitment and radicalization processes make contemporary, religiously motivated terrorism significantly different from previous, local, ethno-nationalistic terrorism. The Internet has become the major recruiting tool for terrorists with an international agenda (for example, the Jihadi movement or the Aryan Nations).
Based on statements by and interviews with religiously motivated terrorists, Jihadi recruitment videos, and various websites, his presentation describes the way mimesis works to aid in the recruitment of potential terrorists, reviews research on the possibilities for personal transformation and radicalization over the Internet, and discusses some of the ways these media-driven, mimetic processes make contemporary, religiously motivated terrorism significantly different from previous, local, ethno-nationalistic terrorism.
This event took place as part of the “2010 Colloquium on Violence & Religion - Transforming Violence: Cult, Culture and Acculturation”
At the COV&R conference, scholars from a wide range of disciplines explore questions about violence and their impacts on daily life. What sort of artistic, expressive forms and cultural formations result from the experience of violence?
Recorded Friday, July 02, 2010 at University of Notre Dame - McKenna Hall Auditorium.