Takfiri jihadists, typified by an al-Qaeda perspective, claim that
the “true” Muslim Umma (the Islamic community) is
held together by a centrifugal universality based on religious
identity, and that this religion compels people to engage in a form
of radical violent Islamism to confront the evils of the Dar
el-Harb (non-Islamic World). A closer examination of
those mechanisms of individual radicalization (whether cultural,
political, social-psychological, etc.), which lead people to carry
out violence in the name of Islam, demonstrates that unique
combinations of chance encounters; ideological commitments;
individual and collective interactions with state and international
organizations/institutions; and individual experience account for
propensities to support and participate in radical violent Islamism.
Individual processes of mobilization and radicalization and
“macro-cultural” contexts serve to ground identities and create
recruitment potential for radical violent Islamists to encourage
others to join and participate in their cause.The support of the British Academy and the Economic and
Social Research Council is gratefully acknowledged. This work
has been supported by a British Academy Small Grant “Memories
and Massacres in the Formation of Algerian National Identity,”
reference SG-41624 and an ESRC research grant under the auspices
of the program, New Security Challenge, and the article reflects
research being conducted on ESRC grant RES-181-25-0017. I would
especially like to express thanks for the hard work of Rebecca
Fowler in helping with both this article and the symposium in
its entirety.