IPRPD International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science ISSN 2693-2547 (Print), 2693-2555 (Online) Volume 01; Issue no 07: December 07, 2020 Recruitment and Muslims against Crusaders (MAC) attractive: A Strain theory approach Dr Ilyas Mohammed1 1 Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool Email: [email protected] Received: 30/11/2020 Accepted for Publication: 05/12/2020 Published: 07/12/2020 Abstract Muslims Against Crusaders (MAC) was the last reincarnation of Al Muhajiroun. Some of its members travelled to Syria and joined ISIS and others have been arrested the British security services. Most research on Al Muhajiroun and its reincarnation tend to focus on socio-political and economic circumstances allied with Salafi/Wahhabi Islam, to explain the motivations to join extremist groups. However, such explanations fail to account for the role that collective strain, vicarious strain and linked fate have on individuals deciding to join MAC. This paper argues that the experience of collective strain, collective strain and linked fate by members of MAC contribute to them deciding to join the group. Keywords: Radicalization, Terrorism, Muslim, Extremism, Islamic state, Strain theory. Introduction Muslims Against Crusaders (MAC) was set up in 2010 by Abu Assadullah, a British Muslim from London. The group was another reincarnation of Al Muhajiroun (Ilyas, 2014 and Klausen et al. 2012). The group gained international notoriety for burning national flags, Poppies on Remembrance Day and for chants like 'British soldiers burn in hell'. Theresa May banned the group in November 2011, when she was British Home Sectary (Taylor & Peachey, 2011). The group has not been replaced, which is mainly due to the British anti-terrorism legislation. Since the banning of the group, some of its members, such as Al-Britani and Abu Rumaysah have joined ISIS in Syria (Doyle, 2014 and Dearden, 2014) or engaged in homegrown terrorism, such as Khuram Shahzad Butt (Booth et al. 2017). In 2016, Anjem Choudary, who was closely connected to the group, was arrested and charged with supporting ISIS and sentenced to 5 years in prison but was released in 2018 (Quinn, 2018). What exists today of the group is a loose network of individuals, who continue to provide commentary on Islam and politics on social media, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (Small, 2017 and Baraa, 2017). Since the banning of MAC in 2011 and the emergence of ISIS, the group has somewhat become irrelevant. However, Hope not Hate, an anti-racism organisation has claimed that Al Muhajiroun activists (Al Muhajiroun and AMC are the group) have regrouped and are active on the streets of London, Luton and Derby, Birmingham, Leicester and Slough (Dearden, 2019). This situation, coupled with the fact that the socio-political conditions and international conflicts that motivated people to join MAC still remain could mean that the group re-emerges (Hewitt, 2017). Al Mhiajiroun and its reincarnations have been the subject of much research (Baxter, 2005; Pargeter, 2008; Klausen et al. 2012; Kenny, 2012, 2018; Kylie, 2006; Clément, 2014; Wiktorowicz, 2005). Most of these studies tend to focus on local political and economic circumstances allied with Salafi/Wahhabi Islam, to explain the motivations to join extremist groups Al Muhajiroun and its 87 | International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science Vol. 01 - Issue: 07/ December_2020 successor groups (Kundnani, 2014). However, such a focus underplays the impact that the suffering experienced by Muslims living in conflict zones (Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Central African Republic, Kashmir and Burma) has on Muslims living in non-conflict zones like the UK. In extreme cases, the impact has led to some British Muslims to foreign fighters or engage in terrorism on home soil. In other cases, as will be argued in this paper, it has resulted in some British Muslims joining MAC. The paper contributes to the existing body of literature on extremism in a novel way by employing strain theory and its accompanying concepts such as 'collective strain, vicarious strain and linked fate'. In doing so, the paper argues that the impact of suffering (herein referred to as strain) experienced by Muslims living in conflict zones has on Muslims living in non-conflict zones like the UK can lead some to join extremist groups like MAC. Although the collective strain, vicarious strain and linked fate are discussed separately, in reality, they occur simultaneously and are deeply connected. Hence, collective strain occurs first, but because of social media, it is instantly globalised. This means that other members of the community that live outside the conflict zone experience the strain instantly and vicariously because the victims of the strain are identifiable and relatable. Vicarious strain, in most cases, especially for those living outside the conflict zone, is experienced through social media platforms by watching videos uploaded by the victims or by those who witnessed the strain. Multiple viewings of the videos not only reinforce the idea of a linked fate relationship between the strained and non-strained and amplify the negative feelings but also solidify the in-group and out-group distinction and engender obligations and responsibilities to alleviate the strain in some way. This paper is broken down into a number of sections. The first section discusses the methodological approach taken to conduct the research. The second section briefly details the history of Al Muhajiroun and MAC. The third section argues that the members of MAC joined the group because the experienced a combination of collective strain, vicarious strain and linked fate, which engendered feelings of obligation and responsibility in them that necessitated the need to alleviate the strain experienced by their Muslim brethren living in conflict zones. The paper concludes by suggesting that if the British government is to avoid groups like MAC from emerging, it needs to take seriously the British Muslim communities concerns connected Islamophobia and conflicts involving Muslims. Methodology The methodological approach that was adopted for the research is qualitative because the paper is interested in understanding the motivations of individuals who joined MAC, which involves identifying attitudes, beliefs, feelings, behaviours and interpretations. Such an interest leads to methodological choices, which, in the case of this paper resulted in employing a qualitative methodology and allied methods to collect and analyse the data (Hakim (2000). To gain access to members of MAC, snowball sampling was used because the group was hard-to-reach because it was deemed as an extremist group by the British government and mainstream Muslims. It was deemed such because the group adopted a literalist understanding of Islam, an aggressive politics based around re-establishing the Caliphate, and often engaged in activism that engendered moral outrage. As such, the group and its members were under constant surveillance by the British security services. Consequently, members of the group were very suspicious of researchers and journalists, and they often deemed them as informants for the security services (MAC, male interview 1, 2011 and Gilbert, 2001). Such obstacles for most researchers can prove to be challenging to overcome. However, the author overcame these obstacles by employing his informal network of contacts that were gatekeepers, sympathisers and members of MAC (Malthaner and Waldmann, 2014). Utilising informal network does not always mean that members of a given a group will want to take part in research. In the case of this paper, some members of MAC declined to be interviewed, citing mistrust of the author. The mistrust of researchers and journalists is not only held by MAC and other Islamist groups, like Hizb ut Tahrir but also by some sections of the British Muslim community because they accuse the government of 88 | Recruitment and Muslims against Crusaders: Dr Ilyas Mohammed. International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Science ISSN 2693-2547 (Print), 2693-2555 (Online) spying on Muslims (Choudhury and Fenwick, 2011; Shanaah and Lindekilde, 2019; Alam and Husband, 2013; BBC, 2017). However, one way to circumvent issues about mistrust could have been to do covert research, but this approach engenders risk to personal safety and raises a range of ethical and legal issues that would have compromised the research. Moreover, professional organisations such as the British Sociological Association (BSA) and British Criminology Society (BSC) do not encourage academics to do undercover research. The research involved conducting semi-structured interviews with seven members of MAC. The interview method is the most suitable method to use if the research aim is to understand the personal narratives of the interviewees and how they construct and understand their world. The advantage of using interviews over other methods is that they allow for: The identification of patterns of associations between factors on the ground. Interviews can also clarify the reasons for the discrepancy between stated attitudes and behaviour (Hakim 2000: 36). In total, two female and five male members of MAC were interviewed. All the interviews apart from one took place in cafes in London and lasted between 1 to 2 hours. The decision to use cafes to conduct the interviews was due to the preference of the interviewees. The interviewees chose cafes in East and West London that were densely populated by Muslims, such as Whitechapel. This choice was due to their comfort and personal safety. The interview that was not conducted in a cafe took place in a building that the group rented to hold talks and meetings. The reason behind this decision was the availability of the interviewee. To interview female members of the group, a female colleague was always present because the group employed strict gender norms, where male and female members did not mix during talks or protests. Goldsmiths College University of London granted ethical approval, and informed consent was gained by asking the interviewees to complete a consent form before the interview started.