Homegrown Radicals

Synopsis

In 2007, three Muslim university students left the Canadian Prairies, seemingly without a trace. In the ensuing months, their disappearance raised fears that the men had become "radicalized," posing a grave threat to national security. From presidential briefings and targeted drone assassinations to a politically charged trial, the men's story sheds new light not only on the figure of the "radical," but also on the "moderate" Muslim, represented by a community forever changed by the men's departure.Homegrown Radicals offers a case study of the complex entanglements of the radical and moderate Muslim in post-9/11 North America. Youcef Soufi brings these figures together, providing insight into how state violence has inextricably tied them together. Focusing on the radicalization of the three students, the book traces the general sense of affective injury among North American Muslims over the loss of Muslim life in Western military campaigns overseas. In this context, a new theory of jihad rooted in a Muslim utopian imagination emerged, marking a significant rupture with premodern Islamic thought. The three "radicals" were among thousands of Anglophone Muslims who found this new theory compelling as both a diagnosis and a solution to the violence unleashed in the War on Terror. The book examines how and why this theory resonated, as well as its consequences.