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In recent years, numerous Western-born Muslim men (and a few women) have been seduced by militant Islam and have died for its varied causes thousands of miles from home. In this volume, Wiktorowicz departs from the ever-expanding scholarship on terrorism that seeks to explain its origins, its structural and historical underpinnings, or its objectives and motives. Instead, this author seeks to explain why Muslims in the West are drawn to radical groups and how they are convinced to engage in what the author calls "high-risk, high-cost activism."
To do so, he applies the theoretical lens of social movement theory to his case study of the London-based al-Mujahiroun, led by Omar Bakri Mohammad. (Bakri has not been allowed back into the United Kingdom since August 2005.) Al-Mujahiroun's core tenet, before being disbanded by October 2004, was "the use of military coups to establish Islamic states wherever there are Muslims, including Britain" (p. 7). It was not easy being an al-Mujahiroun activist: members were expected to attend a "dizzying array of required weekly activities" and to center their lives on the movement. This often meant sacrificing "work, friends, family, and leisure time" (p. 47). Activists had to pay dues and donate one third of their salary to the organization. Given organizational time commitments, activists took jobs that paid less but allowed them to participate in group activities. Some activists lost their jobs over their affiliation (p. 51). Members were often jailed and fined for violating ordinances and laws pertaining to public order and...