Preventing violent and hateful extremism: comparing the experiences of domestic Swedish and international humanitarian-development NGOs

In Sweden, local authorities are encouraged to cooperate with civil society to promote resilience to violent extremism. However, some (mostly Muslim) organisations are approached with suspicion and sometimes accused of not subscribing to basic democratic principles. Along with cooperation and resilience, suspicion seems to be a recurrent and global theme in the relationship between the prevention of violent and hateful extremism (VHE) and civil society. This paper builds on empirical research by the author and others, which examined how NGOs and FBOs operating within Sweden conducted and were challenged by preventive work. The paper compares results from the Swedish study against findings from international humanitarian-development NGOs via a scoping study to examine the similar and different dynamics around cooperation, resilience, and suspicion in prevention of VHE. Results will help progress the discussion on the challenges that civil society faces in its attempts to promote resilience to VHE.