Author(s): Iulia-Mihaela DRĂGAN
Publication name: Romanian Intelligence Studies Review
Publisher name: Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy
Publication type: Journal article
Publication date: June 30, 2025
Pagination:
Issue/ Volume: 1 (33)/2025
DOI:
Abstract:
Religious proselytism, characterized by the policy of converting new followers
in order to practice religious beliefs, is a subject that generates confusion in terms of
ensuring the balance between respecting religious freedoms and preventing national
security risks. Starting from the distinction between improper religious proselytism
that uses undemocratic methods to attract new followers and conventional religious
proselytism that falls within the sphere of religious freedom, we believe that a mirror
analysis of the two types of proselytism can lead to highlighting key aspects that
exceed the manifestation of religious freedom, and in some cases, it can lead to the
initiation of the process of Islamic radicalization. The premise of the article is that
the relationship between improper Islamic religious proselytism and the process of
Islamic radicalization is a whole-to-part relationship: the early signs that indicate the
advanced stage of Islamic radicalization in the cases pronounced by Romanian court
decisions demonstrate that improper Islamic proselytism accompanies the process of
violent radicalization.
As a methodology, the method of combining two theories is applied: the theory of
conversion and radicalization as a sub-type of radicalization to highlight the relationship
between conventional proselytism and the process of religious conversion on the one hand,
and on the other hand, the relationship between improper proselytism and violent Islamic
radicalization. The methodological tool used is the analysis of the decisions of the
European Court of Human Rights in which there were identified cases of proselytism
and of the decisions of the national courts in Romania, through which the radicalized
immigrants were expelled.
Keywords: Islamic proselytism, Islamic radicalization, religious freedom,
religious conversion theory, radicalization as a sub-type of conversion, security risks.
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