Dear all,
Please join us for the Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) this
Wednesday, September 19 from 12.00 - 1.30 pm in CGIS Knafel Room 354. Rich
Nielsen <http://people.fas.harvard.edu/~rnielsen/>, a Ph.D. candidate from
the Department of Government at Harvard University, will give a practice
job talk entitled "Jihadi Radicalization of Muslim Clerics". As always, a
light lunch will be provided.
Abstract:
**
This paper explains why some Muslim clerics adopt the
ideology of militant
Jihad while others do not. I argue that clerics strategically adopt or
reject Jihadi ideology because of career incentives generated by the
structure of cleric educational networks. Well-connected clerics enjoy
substantial success at pursuing comfortable careers within state-run
religious institutions and they reject Jihadi ideology in exchange for
continued material support from the state. Clerics with poor educational
networks cannot rely on connections to advance through the state-run
institutions, so many pursue careers outside of the system by appealing
directly to lay audiences for support. These clerics are more likely to
adopt Jihadi ideology because it helps them demonstrate to potential
supporters that they have not been theologically coopted by political
elites. I provide evidence of these dynamics by collecting and analyzing
29,430 fatwas, articles, and books written by 91 contemporary clerics.
Using statistical natural language processing, I measure the extent to
which each cleric adopts Jihadi ideology in their writing. I combine this
with biographical and network information about each cleric to trace the
process by which poorly-connected clerics become more likely to adopt
Jihadi ideology.
An up-to-date schedule for the workshop is available at
http://www.iq.harvard.edu/events/node/1208.
Best,
Konstantin
--
Konstantin Kashin
Ph.D. Candidate in Government
Harvard University
Mobile: 978-844-0538
E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu
Site:
http://www.konstantinkashin.com/<http://people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ekkashi…