The Closed Circle offers an unprecedented inside view into how one of the world's most influential Islamist groups operates. Lorenzo Vidino marshals unique interviews with prominent former members and associates of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West, shedding light on why and how people join and leave the organization.
Written by an expert at The Investigative Project, a counterterrorism institute and America's largest private data-gathering center on militant Islamic activities, this text fills a critical gap in the understanding of the new threats posed by Islamist terrorism.
In both Europe and North America, organizations tracing their origins back to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements have rapidly evolved into multifunctional, richly funded organizations. They now compete to become the major representatives of Western Muslim communities and government interlocutors. Some analysts and policy makers see these organizations as positive forces encouraging integration. Others treat them as modern-day Trojan horses that feign moderation while radicalizing Western Muslims. Lorenzo Vidino brokers a third and more informed view. Having completed more than a decade of research on political Islam in the West, Vidino is keenly qualified to analyze a movement that is as controversial as it is unknown. Conducting in-depth interviews on four continents and sourcing documents in ten languages, Vidino shares the history, methods, views, and goals of the Western Brothers, as well as their phenomenal growth. He then flips the perspective, examining the response to these groups by Western governments, concentrating specifically on Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. Highly informed and thoughtfully presented, Vidino's work sheds light on a critical juncture in Muslim-Western relations and the role Islam plays for a variety of uprooted individuals.
In the past few years, the MENA region witnessed a rise in jihadist extremism and radicalization, as countries in the area were rocked by a series of deadly terrorist attacks. As authorities responded to the threat, it became clear that in order to effectively counter the phenomenon, traditional repressive measures had to now be accompanied by alternative methods of prevention, rehabilitation and dissuasion.How have different governments around the Mediterranean responded? What sort of alternative measures have been taken? How effective have these policies been? What further steps can be taken to strengthen the response of the authorities?These are just some of the key issues that this ISPI Report seeks to cover. The experts in this volume illustrate the policies of contrast, prevention and de-radicalization that have been adopted by countries in the MENA region, revealing emerging trends, lessons learned and overviews of this security status.
Over the last three years Europe and North America have been hit by an unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks perpetrated by individuals motivated by jihadist ideology. Who are the individuals who have carried out these attacks? Were they born and raised in the West? Or were they an “imported threat”, refugees and migrants? How did they radicalize? Were they well educated and integrated, or social outcasts? Did they act alone? What were their connections to the Islamic State? The answers to these and other questions have large implications for our understanding of the threat facing us and, consequently, help us design sounder policy solutions built on empirical evidence. This study, the first of its kind, seeks to analyze the demographic profile, radicalization trajectories and connections to the Islamic State of all the individuals who have carried out attacks inspired by jihadist ideology in North America and Europe in the three years since the proclamation of the caliphate in June 2014.
PDF available to download for free from: http://martenscentre.eu/publications/political-islam-europe-and-mediterranean-three-contributions Political Islam is becoming increasingly important to European politicians and policymakers. This research paper gathers together three edited papers from the event "The Atlantic Seminar: Understanding Political Islam", organised by the CES and the Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party (Polak) and International Republican Institute in Vienna (IRI). The three authors emphasise the need for a tailored approach with regard to each Islamic political organisation, because political Islam includes elements with varying programmes and agendas recognition of internal differentiation and disagreements within individual Muslim political organisations and recognition that Islamic organisations change and evolve over time.
In both Europe and North America, organizations tracing their origins back to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements have rapidly evolved into multifunctional, richly funded organizations. They now compete to become the major representatives of Western Muslim communities and government interlocutors. Some analysts and policy makers see these organizations as positive forces encouraging integration. Others treat them as modern-day Trojan horses that feign moderation while radicalizing Western Muslims. Lorenzo Vidino brokers a third and more informed view. Having completed more than a decade of research on political Islam in the West, Vidino is keenly qualified to analyze a movement that is as controversial as it is unknown. Conducting in-depth interviews on four continents and sourcing documents in ten languages, Vidino shares the history, methods, views, and goals of the Western Brothers, as well as their phenomenal growth. He then flips the perspective, examining the response to these groups by Western governments, concentrating specifically on Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. Highly informed and thoughtfully presented, Vidino's work sheds light on a critical juncture in Muslim-Western relations and the role Islam plays for a variety of uprooted individuals.
The Muslim Brotherhood in the West remains a mysterious entity. In The Closed Circle, Lorenzo Vidino offers an unprecedented inside view into how one of the world’s most influential Islamist groups operates. He marshals unique interviews with prominent former members and associates from Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America, shedding light on why and how people join and leave Western outfits of the Muslim Brotherhood. Drawing on these striking personal accounts, Vidino weaves together the experiences of individuals who participated in and later renounced Brotherhood groups. Their perspectives provide a wealth of new information about the Brotherhood’s secretive inner workings and the networks that connecting the small yet highly organized cluster of Brotherhood-influenced groups. The Closed Circle examines the tactics the Brotherhood uses to recruit and retain participants as well as how and why individuals make the difficult decision to leave. Through the stories of diverse former members, Vidino paints a portrait of a highly structured, tight-knit movement. His unprecedented access and understanding of the group’s activities and motivations has significant policy implications concerning Western Brotherhood organizations and also illuminates the underlying mechanisms found in a range of extremist groups.
Over the last three years Europe and North America have been hit by an unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks perpetrated by individuals motivated by jihadist ideology. Who are the individuals who have carried out these attacks? Were they born and raised in the West? Or were they an “imported threat”, refugees and migrants? How did they radicalize? Were they well educated and integrated, or social outcasts? Did they act alone? What were their connections to the Islamic State? The answers to these and other questions have large implications for our understanding of the threat facing us and, consequently, help us design sounder policy solutions built on empirical evidence. This study, the first of its kind, seeks to analyze the demographic profile, radicalization trajectories and connections to the Islamic State of all the individuals who have carried out attacks inspired by jihadist ideology in North America and Europe in the three years since the proclamation of the caliphate in June 2014.
In the past few years, the MENA region witnessed a rise in jihadist extremism and radicalization, as countries in the area were rocked by a series of deadly terrorist attacks. As authorities responded to the threat, it became clear that in order to effectively counter the phenomenon, traditional repressive measures had to now be accompanied by alternative methods of prevention, rehabilitation and dissuasion. How have different governments around the Mediterranean responded? What sort of alternative measures have been taken? How effective have these policies been? What further steps can be taken to strengthen the response of the authorities? These are just some of the key issues that this ISPI Report seeks to cover. The experts in this volume illustrate the policies of contrast, prevention and de-radicalization that have been adopted by countries in the MENA region, revealing emerging trends, lessons learned and overviews of this security status.
PDF available to download for free from: http://martenscentre.eu/publications/political-islam-europe-and-mediterranean-three-contributions Political Islam is becoming increasingly important to European politicians and policymakers. This research paper gathers together three edited papers from the event "The Atlantic Seminar: Understanding Political Islam", organised by the CES and the Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party (Polak) and International Republican Institute in Vienna (IRI). The three authors emphasise the need for a tailored approach with regard to each Islamic political organisation, because political Islam includes elements with varying programmes and agendas recognition of internal differentiation and disagreements within individual Muslim political organisations and recognition that Islamic organisations change and evolve over time.
Written by an expert at The Investigative Project, a counterterrorism institute and America's largest private data-gathering center on militant Islamic activities, this text fills a critical gap in the understanding of the new threats posed by Islamist terrorism.
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