ABSTRACT
The central purpose of Part II is to transpose a broad socio-cultural context upon the frameworks developed in Part I to inform the case studies in Part III. To this end, Chapter 5 broadly examines how Islam acts as the primary centre for the charismatic leadership phenomenon in modern Islamist radicalism and militancy. It argues that Islam provides the nucleus of the charismatic collective’s in-group identity and a toolkit which charismatic leaders selectively draw upon in response to perceptions of crisis in their charismatic collectives. Moreover, this chapter builds on Chapter 4 to develop a model of four ideal types of Islamic orientation – secularist, modernist, radical and militant – arguing that radicalisation towards Islamist militancy broadly reflects an increasing perception of the need to apply selectively literalist interpretations of the sharia to the socio-political realm and a growing legitimisation of violence driven by heightening perceptions of crisis. This chapter then examines four critical tools used by radical and militant Islamist charismatic leaders to construct their charismatic image and narrative: Islamic history, tawhid, the ummah and jihad.
