ABSTRACT
The three processes of radicalization, moderation and de-radicalization1 within Islamist movements are reviewed and analyzed in this chapter. I start by analyzing the studies on radicalization in Islamist movements, since that process has been extensively covered relative to the other two. That is followed by an analysis of the studies on the moderation process in Islamist movements. Given that there are far fewer studies on that process, I will be able to discuss specific case studies of moderation. That will be followed by showing a gap in the literature when it comes to Islamist de-radicalization. The main focus of this chapter is reviewing the causes of the three aforementioned processes. Radicalization has been discussed extensively since the late 1970s (Ibrahim 1980, 1982; Roy 1994; Esposito 1997; Anderson 1997; Fuller 2002; Hafez 2000, 2004; Wiktorowicz 2004). Moderation is a relatively recent development and, therefore, less work has been done on examining its causes (Wickham 2004; El-Ghobashy 2005; Clark 2006; Schwedler 2006). None of the literature on Islamist movements has distinguished between moderation and de-radicalization. Also, none of it has theorized about the causes of the latter process, as defined in the first chapter, in Islamist movements.
