CELE #1974697 VOL 00, ISS 00

Lavinia Stan

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THE EUROPEAN LEGACY

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/ 5
£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 10
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 15
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 the reasons that lead individuals to join and then leave the group. The first 20
chapter explains the theological difficulty faced by the Brotherhood leaders when the orga-
nization 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 25
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 30
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 35
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 40
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. 45
2 L. STAN

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 50
(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 55
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 60
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. 65
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 70
unparalleled understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his long-term commitment to
unravel its inner workings, structure and discourse inconsistencies, represent a solid founda-
tion 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 75
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 80
Lstan@stfx.ca
© 2021 International Society for the Study of European Ideas
https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770.2021.1974697