Circles Drawing Toward High Risk Activism: The Use of Usroh and Halaqa in Islamist Radical Movements

Social movement theorists have demonstrated that movement participation is in part a function of a mental calculus by which potential participants weigh what might be gained over what participation might cost. This cost-benefit approach to social movement participation is part of Resource Mobilization Theory (Johnston and Klandermans, 1995; McCarthy and Zald, 1973, 1977; Moore, 1998; Olson, 1965; Schwartz and Paul, 1992). In the Western context, these theories frequently have empirical applicability, but when resource mobilization theories are applied to Islamist organizations (Bale, 2005; Roy, 2004) where participation can include such extreme activities as suicide bombing, the costs of participation far exceed any hope of personal gain (Atran, 2006; Pape, 2005; Roy, 2004). The failure of resource mobilization to account for participation in the Islamist context, begs the question of how to account for extreme activities.