Aspects of Recruitment by Terrorist Organizations in Europe’s Muslim Communities

Abstract:

The main principles and methods for recruiting by Islamist terrorist organizations in European countries are essentially no different from those used by national security services, by religions, mystical and totalitarian cults, and even certain businesses.
The differences are a matter of nuance, emphasis, and the success rate of recruitment by certain patterns and schemes. However, it is specifically the study of these nuances that can help establish why the phenomenon of Islamist terrorism has become quasiubiquitous, as well as identifying means and methods for narrowing and reducing the base that advocates and nourishes terrorism, whilst furnishing it with ever more fresh recruits.
In order to better understand the powerful dynamics behind the spread of Islamism--the politicized component of Islam--through the Muslim communities of Europe, it is necessary to briefly dwell on the general characteristics of modern Islamic society, as well as the causes and the current degree of radicalization.
The ideological content of Islamism is Islamic fundamentalism, which, on the one hand, is a theological teaching and a movement to restore certain pri-mary values, norms and relations that were canonized in history (these can be religious, ethical, family, domestic, etc.) and on the other hand, as a political teaching and the practice of struggling for power in Muslim states.