Hill Islam with Mohammed Hafez

"There is no one path to radicalization" argued Professor Mohammed Hafez at a meeting of Capitol Hill staffers on September 21, 2007. According to Hafez, the common presumption that a principal root cause, whether economic deprivation, fundamentalist ideology, or authoritarian repression, can explain the growth of Islamic radicalism is simply wrong. Instead, “there are many pathways to radicalization,” influenced by various entry points, variables, and personality types. Hafez, a visiting professor of political science at the University of Missouri and recent author of Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom (USIP, 2007) made his comments as part of the CSIS Congressional Forum on Islam, in a talk entitled "Pathways to Muslim Radicalization."