The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West

Lorenzo Vidino

Columbia University Press, Aug 25, 2010 - Political Science - 336 pages

In Europe and North America, networks tracing their origins back to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements have rapidly evolved into multifunctional and richly funded organizations competing to become the major representatives of Western Muslim communities and government interlocutors. Some analysts and policy makers see these organizations as positive forces encouraging integration. Others cast them as modern-day Trojan horses, feigning moderation while radicalizing Western Muslims.

Lorenzo Vidino brokers a third, more informed view. Drawing on more than a decade of research on political Islam in the West, he keenly analyzes a controversial movement that still remains relatively unknown. Conducting in-depth interviews on four continents and sourcing documents in ten languages, Vidino shares the history, methods, attitudes, and goals of the Western Brothers, as well as their phenomenal growth. He then flips the perspective, examining the response to these groups by Western governments, specifically those of Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. Highly informed and thoughtfully presented, Vidino's research sheds light on a critical juncture in Muslim-Western relations.

Contents

• 1 Who Speaks for Western Muslims?: 1
• 2 The Western Brotherhood: 17
• 3 Aims and Methods: 56
• 4 The Governments Dilemma: 96
• 5 Great Britain: 114
• 6 Germany: 147
• 7 The United States: 166
• 8 The Brothers and Terrorism: 199
• Conclusion: 222
• Notes: 227
• Bibliography: 279
• Index: 309

About the author

Lorenzo Vidino is a fellow with the International Security Program's Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at the Belfer Center, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also a Peace Scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace and author of the first book on al Qaeda in Europe, Al Qaeda in Europe: The New Battleground of Global Jihad. Vidino holds a law degree from the University of Milan Law School and a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West; Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare
• Author: Lorenzo Vidino
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2010
• ISBN: 0231522290, 9780231522298
• Length: 336 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / International Relations / General; Religion / Islam / General