The Closed Circle : Joining and Leaving the Muslim Brotherhood in the West

__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. 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. "While often the subject of heated debates, the Muslim Brotherhood in the West remains a mysterious entity. Scholars, security officials, journalists and policymakers disagree on virtually every aspect of the issue, starting with the most basic questions: what the Brotherhood in the West is, who belongs to it, how one joins it, how it operates, how it finances itself--and, in some cases, on whether it even exists. In this book, Lorenzo Vidino uses the stories of individuals who joined and later left Western outfits of the Muslim Brotherhood in order to understanding the inner workings of this group and the tactics it uses to recruit and retain members. The Muslim Brotherhood may be only one of many extremist organizations trying to gain a foothold in the West, but Vidino's unprecedented access and understanding of the group's everyday activities and motivations gives him an opportunity to explore the underlying mechanisms found in all sorts of terrorist organizations"-- Provided by publisher