Research Note: Toward A Maqasid Al-Sharia Based Radicalization Index

Radicalization denotes the process by which an individual or group adopts or exhibits a violent form of action directly linked to an extremist ideology be it; socio-political, or religious, which is not consistent with the conventional value construct. But radicalization assessment mechanism is obscure. Its structure, scope, and implementation strategy still remain largely unsettled. Central to this mechanism are the risk assessment tools which are used as indicators to assess individual(s) vulnerability. But scholarship on such tools, however, is dominated by the Behavioral Science. Thus, militating against the tools’ suitability within the realm of the religious content of the individual’s thinking. This research note, therefore, takes the religious approach to identify suitable indicators relative to the individual’s value construct. Using the Maqasid Al-Sharia framework, it articulates vulnerability assessment tools which were tested through Focus Discussion (FD) involving ten students (four female and six male) drawn from two universities in Northwest Nigeria. Hence the paper discovered the operational utility of the tools which proved valuable toward providing policy direction at the two levels of aggregation: micro and macro levels of vulnerability risk assessment.