Islamist attitudes among young Muslims in Germany: Cognitive Pretest

Abstract

Radicalized Islamist attitudes or expressions of opinion do not automatically lead to corresponding violent acts among young people from Islamist socialization milieus. But they contribute to the legitimacy of violent activities, because any violence against other groups is always dependent on such patterns of attitude, which imply a devaluation of foreign groups, which is given by the radicalized Islamist attitudes towards persons of other faiths. The research project "Islamist attitudes among young Muslims in Germany" examines the patterns and social backgrounds, including the actors who promote such legitimation-providing attitudes among adolescents. In order to prepare the survey, selected parts of the questionnaire should be subjected to a cognitive pretest under methodological and questionnaire-related aspects and revised based on the test results. The questionnaire was developed in German and translated into Turkish and Arabic, among other languages. The aim of the cognitive pretest was to test both the original questionnaire and the translations. To test the Turkish and Arabic questionnaires, simultaneous interpreters were to be added to the cognitive interviews via video conference. For this purpose, the GESIS pretest laboratory was commissioned to carry out the cognitive pretest.