RADICAL MOSQUES AND SOCIAL CENTERS

Radical mosques have played an important role as venues for the dissemination of extremist ideology and have served as gateways to radical recruitment. Materials published by different extremist organizations such as books, pamphlets, audio- and videocassettes are widely distributed in mosques. Of course, although the content of the sermons and the materials distributed at a mosque may contribute to radicalization, the more interesting question concerns the social network implications of a religious meeting place. In some cases, even where the mosque leadership did not itself promote extremism, the mosques served as meeting places where like-minded radicals came together and created their social networks.

Before 9/11, mosques provided the settings where the cells involved in some of the most destructive terror attacks in Europe coalesced. Mohammed Atta, Ramzi Binalshibh, Marwan Al-Shehhi, and Ziad Samir Jarrah, all involved in the 9/11 attacks, were members of the al-Quds mosque in Hamburg. The London-based extremist Abu Qatada often visited the al-Quds mosque. He also visited the Abu Baker mosque in Madrid. According to Rohan Gunaratna, “Indoctrination material including videotapes, magazines, and pamphlets from a variety of fundamentalists Islamic groups, including the GIA, Hamas, Egyptian Jihad, the mujaheddin in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and announcements from Osama bin Laden were found in the Abu Baker mosque.”