Incitement: Anwar Al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad

Terrorism scholar Meleagrou-Hitchens debuts with a rigorous analysis of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki’s influence on the global jihadist movement. Documenting the links between al-Awlaki and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed 2009 attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight and Zachary Chesser’s 2010 call for the murders of South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, among numerous other “jihadist-related offenses,” Meleagrou-Hitchens draws on social movement theory to explain how the Yemeni-American cleric’s online writings and personal interactions helped shift the focus of jihad from Muslim-majority countries to Europe and the U.S., and from top-down planning by groups like al-Qaeda to isolated individuals acting alone. By uniting “developments as disparate as the War on Terror, the Muhammad cartoon controversy in Europe, and attempts by Western think tanks to define a moderate Islam,” al-Awlaki crafted a unified narrative of an anti-Muslim conspiracy that continues to radicalize people long after his 2011 assassination in a drone strike. Many followers of al-Awlaki, Meleagrou-Hitchens writes, “are not simply mindless, bloodthirsty killers” but sincere believers “who see the jihad project as one aimed at improving humanity.” His lucid and deeply informed presentation reveals just how difficult it is to stamp out extremist ideologies once they’ve taken root. This sobering account makes a meaningful contribution to the study of terrorism. (May)