Abstract
The final chapter summarizes the ALM/ASWJ movement. It updates, and in some cases corrects, other academic work on the movement. A number of recommendations are made so that policy makers and practitioners can better manage the ASWJ movement and keep the threat from escalating. There is also a discussion on the evolution from ‘traditional jihadists’ like ALM/ASWJ, where rules, structure, actions, and beliefs are taught to a more non-rules-based kind of jihadism where there is far less discipline. The chapter concludes with two key quotes from ALM/ASWJ activists that encapsulate their beliefs and determination.
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Notes
- 1.
In Islamic eschatology, siraat refers to a razor thin bridge that spans the chasm between heaven and hell that everyone must cross. Only the truly righteous will be successful. All others will fall into the hellfire.
- 2.
Baxter, British Muslims and the Call to Global Jihad, Foreword, n.p.
- 3.
Baxter, British Muslims and the Call to Global Jihad, 51, 56, 78, 86, 90.
- 4.
Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising, 7; Kenney similarly concludes that ALM seeks change through a military coup. See Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 11.
- 5.
Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising, 2005.
- 6.
Mohammed, Omar Bakri, Interview with author, April 2012.
- 7.
This is clearly established in Mohammed, Jihad: The Method for Khilafah (n.d.), 26.
- 8.
Interview with ALM/ASWJ leader, 2018.
- 9.
Because my study concentrated on ALM/ASWJ leadership and more global issue I didn’t routinely ask questions regarding employment. Thus, my observations are primarily anecdotal. However, Kenney, who was more focused on rank and file activists, came to the same conclusion.
- 10.
Mohammed, Omar Bakri, interview with author, April 2012.
- 11.
This observation is similarly noted by Baxter and Kenney.
- 12.
Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising, 21.
- 13.
Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising, 207.
- 14.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 73.
- 15.
Wiktorowicz made similar observations. See Radical Islam Rising, 102.
- 16.
For the record, my own assessment is that I possess a very rudimentary understanding of Islam which in part why I make the assessment the activists in mass were not religious seekers.
- 17.
Interview with activist, April 2014.
- 18.
Interview with activist 4.80, October 2011.
- 19.
Wudu is the area where individuals clean themselves before entering the mosque.
- 20.
Takbir, Allah hu Akbar means praise or remember God, God is great. It is used as a prompt to elicit the response God is great.
- 21.
Interview with activist, February 2016.
- 22.
Wiktorowicz, Radical Islam Rising, 73.
- 23.
Interview with leading activist (d), November 2018.
- 24.
Kenney undertakes a more detailed assessment of this but essentially arrives at the same conclusion. See Kenney et al., “Organisational adaptation in an activist network: Social networks, leadership, and change in al-Muhajiroun.” Applied Ergonomics Vol. 44 (2013).
- 25.
Kenney’s work is based on seven trips to the United Kingdom over a 5-year period (2010–2015). It is uncertain whether Kenney had additional interaction with the activists, but his appendix lists approximately 14 weeks of engagement spread between his seven trips. My work is based on living in the United Kingdom and interacting with the movement from 2010 to present.
- 26.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, chapter 1.
- 27.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 54.
- 28.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 169.
- 29.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 135.
- 30.
Baxter, British Muslims and the Call to Global Jihad, 83–87.
- 31.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 60.
- 32.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 136.
- 33.
Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, 22; Kenney even titles his book with that understanding.
- 34.
See Weeks, Douglas M. and Basia Spalek (eds.), Communities and Counterterrorism (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019); Weeks, Douglas M., “Hotbeds of Extremism: The UK Experience,” In Arturo Varvelli (ed.) Islamic State Hotbeds: Where and Why (Milan: Instituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale, 2016); Weeks, Douglas M., “Barking Mosque and Quintessential Insight: Overcoming the Problematic Government/Community Counter-Terrorism Partnership in the UK,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (2018), https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2018.1425087
- 35.
See Weeks, Douglas M. “Doing Deradicalisation: A Profile of the Mentoring System and Providers in the UK” in Lynch and Argomaniz (eds.) Victims and Perpetrators of Terrorism: Exploring Identities, Roles, and Narratives. London: Routledge 2017; Weeks, Douglas M. “Doing Derad: An Analysis of the UK System,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. Vol. 41, No. 5 (2017): 523–540; Weeks, Douglas M. “The Victimisation Experience and Radicalisation Process: Findings from England” in Lynch, O., J. Argomaniz, C. Joyce, & D. Weeks. The Victimisation Experience and the Radicalisation Process: An Understanding of the Perpetrator Victim Cycle Amongst Individuals Involved in Terrorism. Luxembourg: The European Commission 2016; Davies, Lynn, Z. Limbada, L. Zahra-McDonald, B. Spalek, & D. Weeks (2015), Formers and Families: Transitional Journeys in and out of Violent Extremisms in the UK (Birmingham: ConnectJustice).
- 36.
Sageman, Marc, Turning to Political Violence: The Emergence of Terrorism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), 6.
- 37.
This again supports the idea that social and political grievances lead activists to movements such as ASWJ and only later do they become religious seekers.
- 38.
Sageman, Turning to Political Violence, 17. Also see Drury and Reicher, “Collective Action and Psychological Change,” 581; Lichbach and Gurr, “The Conflict Process: A Formal Model,” 24; Endleman, “Deviance and Psychopathology”: 236.
- 39.
Kenney does a good job of highlighting the rationale and stories of some who have left. See Kenney, The Islamic State in Britain, chapter 5.
- 40.
Silke, “The Devil You Know,” 12.
- 41.
See, for instance, Neumann, Peter, Prisons and Terrorism: Radicalisation and De-radicalisation in 15 Countries (London: Kings College, International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, 2010), 57. Also see Ali Soufan et al., Risk Reduction for Countering Violent Extremism (Qatar: QIASS, 2010), 2.
- 42.
Sageman, Turning to Political Violence, 11.
- 43.
Aziz, Rahin, interview with author, 2012.
- 44.
Choudary, Anjem, interview with author, 2014.
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Weeks, D. (2020). Conclusion: Summing up the Activists. In: Al Muhajiroun. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35840-2_9
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