E-grāmata: Radicalization and De-Radicalization between National and Global Jihadism: From the First Egyptian National Jihadists to al-Qaeda

At the turn of the Twenty-first century, a number of violent jihadi groups laid down their arms, as in the case of Egypt and Libya. Many of those former fighters ceased actual violence, and some of them took a step forward, initiating processes of ideological de-radicalization and doctrinal changes that deeply transformed their stance towards the State and active confrontation. How was it possible for those groups to disengage and de-radicalize? Why doesn’t this happen again, among other contemporary jihadists? Sara Brzuszkiewicz argues that the answer is simple, yet quite pessimistic: those who de-radicalized were national jihadists. Once jihad goes global it is no longer possible for an organic process of collective and political de-radicalization to happen. Radicalization and de-radicalization between national and global jihadism. From the first Egyptian national jihadists to Al Qaeda retraces the trajectory of the jihadists who de-radicalized and of those who went global, and measures the role of national jihadism and its characteristics in making de-radicalization a viable option.

In the past, a number of jihadists initiated processes of ideological de-radicalization and doctrinal revisions that transformed their stance towards violence. The book investigates the reasons why this does not happen among contemporary jihadists and posits that, once jihad ceased to be national and became global, it no longer had a set of features that made de-radicalization possible.