Muslim University Students Interaction In An Online Radical Space : A Social Movement Theory Perspective

Some studies argue that radical organizations have targeted young individuals to be recruited as new members using social media platforms. The recruitment of young individuals is a stage by stage process by inspiring and depicting radical ideology on various social media sites. However, limited studies have been conducted to understand how young Muslim individuals begin to interact with the radical organization on social media sites and then being recruited and end up with radical ideology and actions. Therefore, this study uses the social movement theory to understand Muslim university students‟ interaction in radical online space in two universities in a former ethnic deadly conflict regency in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. This study employed a qualitative method in which the data were gathered through focus groups and in-depth interviews. However, the identification of radical students was made prior to the interview through a quick survey. From the survey, we identified 23 students had made interaction in radical online space using social media platform. After that, we carried out twice a focus group session with the identified students. From the focus group discussion, we foundten students have deeply involved in online radicalism activities and then continued with an in-depth interview to understand their involvement from social movement theory. Our findings show that the ten students have moved from first to the fourth social stage of social movement during their interaction in radical online space before they withdraw from further involvement with radical activities. We also found that radical organizations use social media to incite and indoctrinated before the students decline or success to be recruited. Our study is different from previous studies, which argue that individuals can be recruited without involving in an ideological interaction. We suspect that Muslim individuals who can be recruited without prior indoctrination are individuals with high social and political dissatisfaction.