Islamist Indoctrination: Exploring the Techniques Used by Hizb Ut-Tahrir to Radicalize Young British Muslims

Abstract

Trying to generate ethnographic data to study Islamist groups in a natural setting has always presented a problem for researchers seeking to comprehend the radicalization process. Islamist groups operate in a clandestine manner, making it difficult to penetrate their inner workings. The researcher was given access to the inner workings of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a clandestine radical Islamist organization. Having accessed the group, the paper seeks to present an account of the methods used by Hizb ut-Tahrir to indoctrinate new members to its ideology and activist orientation. The personal narratives obtained from this ethnographic fieldwork are placed into a frame of reference related to how indoctrination occurs within Hizb ut-Tahrir. My access to Hizb ut-Tahrir put me in the unique position of being able to gather the biographical information required to study indoctrination. As the findings show, Hizb ut-Tahrir indoctrination is a narrow cognitive process that has distinct behavioral outcomes.

Keywords

• Indoctrination
• Islamism
• Radicalization
• Process
• Hizb-ut-Tahrir
• Ethnology