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The Closed Circle Is The Second Book Authored by The Distinguished Scholar of The Muslim

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The Closed Circle: Joining and Leaving the Muslim Brotherhood in the West, by Lorenzo

Vidino, New York, Columbia University Press, 2020, xii + 275 pp., $30.00/£25.00 (paper)

The Closed Circle is the second book authored by the distinguished scholar of the Muslim

Brotherhood, Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington

University. In his previous book, The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West (Columbia

University Pres, 2010), Vidino discussed the presence of the Brotherhood in a number of

Western countries, the differences between the public statements it directed at Western audiences

and the materials and documents it addressed internally to its members, as well as the policy

responses of Western governments and leaders. In his new book, Vidino goes one step further

toward detailing the group’s membership and activities in the West by portraying former

Brotherhood members, tracing their life trajectories, the reasons for joining and leaving the

Brotherhood, and the consequences of their split from the organization. Based on detailed

interviews with these former members, this book offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of

an organization that purposely remains elusive for outsiders.

The first two chapters set the stage for the interviews by explaining what the Brotherhood

is in the West, and what are the reasons that lead individuals to join and then leave the group.

The first chapter explains the theological difficulty faced by the Brotherhood leaders when the

organization expanded from Egypt and the Middle East, where Muslims formed a majority and

the Brotherhood was sometimes persecuted by local regimes, to Western countries, where they

represented only a tiny minority that could nevertheless worship freely. Indeed, as Vidino argues,

the traditional distinction between dar al Islam (land of Islam) and dar al harb (land of war)

failed to adequately reflect Western realities. The West could not be considered dar al Islam
because it did not enforce sharia, but could neither be considered dar al harb because Muslims

were allowed to practice Islam freely and were not persecuted (5). To address this theological

conundrum, the Brotherhood constructed a new category and classified the West as dar al dawa

(land of preaching). This preaching is a central task that Brotherhood members assume.

Vidino distinguishes three types of Brotherhoods in the West and acknowledges the

difficulty of identifying the Brothers in different countries, since chapters might bear different

names, deny formal association with the Brotherhood, and keep their membership and activities

hidden from the media, the government and the general public. First are the highly secret

networks of Middle Eastern brothers who moved to the West to study, work or live; second, the

visible/public organizations that are Brotherhood spawns established and funded by individuals

of the secret networks; and third are the numerous organizations influenced by the Brotherhood

which adopt its ideology but have no clear operational ties to it (7). The second chapter, which

summarizes the reasons for joining and leaving the Brotherhood, distinguishes between new

recruits, targeted by the Brotherhood, and those coming from Brotherhood families and are

expected to join. Joining involves several stages—sympathizer, supporter, associate, regular or

registered, and active member—that usually take years to complete. Leaving the Brotherhood

can result from disenchantment with the group’s leadership, inner workings or ideology.

The bulk of the book is represented by the seven chapters dedicated to former

Brotherhood members. They are the following: Kamal Helbawy, Ahmed Akkari, Perre Durrani,

Mohamed Louizi, Omero Marongiu, Pernilla Ouis, Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, and Mustafa

Saied. The mix is quite diverse, including one woman (Ouis) and former Brothers belonging to

various ethnic and racial groups, as well as socioeconomic milieus. They were born in Northern

Africa (Egypt, Morocco), the Middle East (Lebanon), India, or the West (Sweden, France, and
the United States). They joined the Brotherhood at different times, staying true to it for different

lengths of time. The interviews, which are summarized and distilled under similar headings,

reveal that some recruitment processes have been transplanted from the Middle East to the West

with very few changes. Similarities between the two regions further characterize the individual

decision to leave the group—prompted by lack of internal democracy, extensive nepotism, ethnic

bias, excessive secrecy, prioritization of politics over religion—with some of the reasons being

specific to the West. While the interviews do not constitute a representative sample, they provide

unprecedented insight into the inner workings of the Brotherhood in the West and of the reasons

for accepting, supporting, and leaving the group. Through his encounters with the former

Brothers, Vidino is able to tease a wealth of details about their aspirations, hopes, fears,

disappointments, doubts, frustrations, biases, and prejudices; the numerous and intricate

relationships and connections that kept them bound to the group; and their own views of what the

Brotherhood is in reality and what it should be politically, religiously and socially.

Rigorous in its structure but compassionate in its approach, rich in detail without being

overwhelming, insightful and elegantly written while also retaining scholarly precision, this book

echoes the written testimonials of other disenchanted former Brotherhood members that have

been published over the years and shows, like no other, that the personal can become political

(and religious) in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Vidino’s unparalleled understanding

of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his long-term commitment to unravel its inner workings,

structure and discourse inconsistencies, represent a solid foundation for this new study and turn

The Closed Circle into a required reading for anyone with a desire to understand the Brotherhood

and what it stands for. The rich quotations drawn from the personal interviews he conducted with

the former Brothers add a unique personal dimension to an analysis that otherwise fulfils all
criteria of academic scholarship, and make this book an engaging reading suitable for a larger

audience not necessarily familiar with the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Western

countries.

Lavinia Stan, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada

Lstan@stfx.ca

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