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Al Muhajiroun
A Case Study in
Contemporary Islamic
Activism
d ougl a s w e e k s
 Al Muhajiroun

“A fascinating and thought-provoking book. Based on 9 years of ethnographic

research and hundreds of interviews, Douglas Weeks sheds compelling fresh light
on Al Muhajiroun and its descendants. In doing so, he challenges many of the
assumptions routinely made about the threat Al Muhajiroun posed, as well as
about our overall understanding of the nature of radicalisation in the UK.”
—Andrew Silke, Professor of Terrorism, Risk, and Resilience,
Cranfield University, UK

“This book challenges many of the prevailing assumptions about the nature of
Islamist movements, and explores them in a detailed manner that hasn’t previously
been explored at an anthropological level. Douglas Weeks analyses al Muhajiroun’s
claims to theological authenticity whilst avoiding clichés. This book questions
many assumptions made by government and commentators trying to connect the
likes of al-Muhajiroun and its sister groups to terror today. A must read for every-
one involved at an academic or professional level.”
—Rashad Ali, Resident Senior Fellow, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, UK

“Douglas Weeks has written a fascinating and authoritative ethnographic account

of the UK-based extremist group, al Muhajiroun. In this immensely rich case
study, Weeks sheds new light on the dynamics and dimensions of radical Islamist
activism and warns of the dangers of government responses that fail to properly
contextualize and counter homegrown extremism and radicalization.”
—Professor Bruce Hoffman, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
 Douglas Weeks

Al Muhajiroun
A Case Study in Contemporary Islamic Activism
Douglas Weeks
School of Criminology, Criminal Justice
and Emergency Management
California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach, CA, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-35839-6    ISBN 978-3-030-35840-2 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35840-2

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To Mom…It’s finally done!
 Acknowledgements

There are literally hundreds of men and women that selflessly gave up their
time to help me understand this movement. The range spans those that
were my earliest international law and fire service contacts in London, my
supervisors at the University of St Andrews, those in the UK police and
probation services, Home Office and local government personnel, current
and former Hizb ut Tahrir leaders, government approved intervention
providers, religious leaders, the enduring support of my family, and of
course the activists themselves who decided to take a chance and allow me
into their world. I owe a debt of gratitude to all of them and attempting
to name anyone would only come at the expense of those that would not
be named. Thus, I will simply say that without the help that all of you
provided, this book would not have been possible. Thank you! You know
who you are.

vii
 Contents

1 Researching the Activists: Understanding Methods, Data,

and Approaches  1

2 The Vanguards of Radicalism in the UK 41

3 Al Muhajiroun: The Early Days (1996–2004) 67

4 The Ideology of Al Muhajiroun103

5 The Post Al Muhajiroun Years (2005–2014): Proscription

and Other Means of Deterrence141

6 The Impacts of the Islamic State and Strategies of Control183

7 Comparing Ideologies: Al Muhajiroun, Al Qaeda, and

Islamic State223

8 Understanding and Managing the Threat255

9 Conclusion: Summing up the Activists299

ix
x Contents

Appendix 1: ALM/ASWJ and Related Interviews321

Appendix 2: Protests, Dawah Stalls, and Halaqah Sessions329

Appendix 3: Radical Preachers333

Appendix 4: Arabic Terms Glossary343

Selected Bibliography349

Index367
 Al Muhajiroun: A Case Study
in Contemporary Islamic Activism

Grounded in 9 years of ethnographic research on the al Muhajiroun/

Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah movement (ALM/ASWJ), Douglas Weeks
mixes ethnography and traditional research methods to tell the complete
story of al Muhajiroun. Beginning with three core events that became a
primer for radical Islamic political thought in the UK, ALM, A Case Study
in Islamic Activism traces the development of the movement from its
incipient beginnings to its current status. Based on his extensive interac-
tion with the group and its leaders, Weeks contextualizes the history,
beliefs, methods, and differences between ALM/ASWJ, al Qaeda, and the
Islamic State so that the group and the threat it poses is comprehensively
understood.
Douglas Weeks is a Lecturer at California State University Long Beach.
Before entering academia, Dr. Weeks spent 29 years as a firefighter and
served as the Counterterrorism and Emergency Services Coordinator
from 1996 until his retirement in 2009. He specializes in radicalization,
deradicalization, and counterterrorism policy.

xi
 Preface

I spent my adult life as a career firefighter and paramedic, running into

burning buildings while others were running out, and saw the best and
worst of human behavior. With the exception of a 3-year stint working for
a rural fire department in Colorado, I spent the remainder of my time
(26 years) working in very urban settings in southern California.
For the first 15 years of my career, I happily lived the life of a career
firefighter. However, around the midpoint of my career I took an unex-
pected detour into the world of counterterrorism that has dominated my
professional life ever since. In 1995, while the FBI and local authorities
were managing a terror related threat at Disneyland (California), conflicts
arose. In the aftermath, the Los Angeles FBI field office made a commit-
ment to work more closely with local authorities and I was begrudgingly
nominated to liaise with them.
The rise in militia movements in the US, the Murrah building bombing
in Oklahoma City, and the sarin attack in Tokyo signaled a more pro-
nounced terror threat. In response, another fire officer from the neighbor-
ing City of Anaheim and I were tasked with forming an ad hoc committee
to develop a multi-agency multi-discipline terrorism response protocol for
regional police and fire personnel. To accomplish that task, my counter-
part and I were sent to every possible training opportunity across the
US. We attended courses on chemical and biological warfare, nuclear
materials, and of course bombs, and worked very closely with the military
and FBI. Our FBI counterparts were all bomb technicians, and we spent a
good deal of time dragging old cars out to the desert, building various

xiii
xiv Preface

bombs, blowing them up, and then then doing the post blast investiga-
tion. In all honesty, it was great fun.
When 9/11 happened, the threat picture escalated exponentially. The
Second Intifada was also in full swing in Israel/Palestine and suicide
bombings were quickly rising to the top of the threat profile. After a
chance meeting with a chief fire officer from Israel at a conference in Los
Angeles, I received what would become several state sponsored invitations
to travel to Israel to learn bomb response protocol from the Israeli’s. I
spent considerable time with the police (especially the Jerusalem Bomb
Squad), fire, emergency medical, religious leaders, and military groups
there. I received similar invitations from the Police and Fire Services in
Northern Ireland and made trips there as well.
The more I saw, the more I realized that it was not just about response.
There was a need to understand what the issues were that drove those
conflicts through the human perspective. I also realized that I was only
receiving the government sanctioned assessment of the threat. In response,
during my trips overseas, I began to venture more and more into the
neighborhoods and speak with people who offered alternative views.
Whether in Northern Ireland or Israel, wandering into the wrong
neighborhood or pub was dangerous, but I quickly realized that as soon
as individuals heard my American accent, the threat to me was immedi-
ately reduced. In fact, I found that people were generally eager to engage
and offer their perspectives on ‘The Troubles’ or ‘the occupation.’
After sustaining a career ending on the job injury, I was forced to retire
from the fire service in late 2009. I decided to leverage my ethnographic
experiences and do a PhD at the University of St Andrews which is where
the genesis for this book began.
When I first started interacting with the activists, I found they were not
only the largest proscribed group operating in the UK, but also the most
accessible, and an excellent example of what constitutes contemporary
Islamic activism in a Western setting. Moreover, they make an excellent
case study of how radicalism actually happens. As will be discussed, radi-
calisation is first and foremost a social problem that is rooted in identity. It
is not the convenient rhetoric that government uses to pejoratively label
people it doesn’t like nor is it rooted in ideology, although it is exacer-
bated by ideology. It is about how individuals give meaning to their lives,
vent their frustration, bond with others, and establish the role they want
to play in society.
 Preface  xv

My association with the activists began in 2010 and continues to this

day. That association has allowed me to understand the inner workings of
the group, why they do what they do, and how they do what they do. To
that end, this book is based on those experiences following 9 years of
protracted, firsthand interaction with its leadership and those that sub-
scribe to their ideological position. I’ve interviewed their top leaders,
attended their protests, interacted with them online, met with them indi-
vidually and in groups on too many occasions to count. I’ve participated
in their halaqah (study) sessions, attended their trials, and engaged with
their families. What follows is a firsthand account of those experiences
supplemented by other academic works and media accounts. It is un-
apologetic and controversial, but accurately depicts the history, beliefs,
methods, threat, and goals of the al Muhajiroun/Ahlus Sunnah Wal
Jamaah movement.

Long Beach, CA, USA Douglas Weeks

 CHAPTER 1

Researching the Activists: Understanding

Methods, Data, and Approaches

Introduction

Fig. 1.1 Omar Bakri Mohammed in his living room. Tripoli, Lebanon, April
2012. (Photograph by Douglas Weeks)

© The Author(s) 2020 1

D. Weeks, Al Muhajiroun,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35840-2_1
2 D. WEEKS

The contemporary world is obsessed with the images of conflict and espe-
cially with those of terrorism. Whether the threat originates from a radical-
ized Islamist group or a radicalized white nationalist, seemingly not a day
passes without some reporting of an individual or group advocating that
radical change is needed. Unfortunately, all too often that message is
underscored by the violence of an actual attack. In response, governments
have gone on the offensive. Police led counter-terrorism raids, military
operations in foreign countries, more stringent border checks, and signifi-
cant increases in digital monitoring are now common practice.
The threat is further solidified through the media and government,
who bombard us with the idea that additional security measures are needed
because there are radicalized individuals within and outside our borders
with ill intent. Ingrained in that reporting is the notion that ‘we’ collec-
tively represent ‘civil society’ and those that are arrested or commit the
atrocities are the ‘terrorists.’
Although the pejorative labeling of radicals, extremists, and terrorists
has many purposes, understanding why such individuals and groups think
the way they think, and do the things they do is important. Groups and
movements vary widely and although government and academics conve-
niently label them as Salafi jihadist, white nationalist, eco-terrorist, or any
number of other categories, effective management of such groups requires
a more thorough understanding. When groups are shoehorned into pre-­
conceived categories without a comprehensive understanding, ineffective
policy results. In some instances, that can even undermine the very secu-
rity that government is attempting to provide.
In the United Kingdom (UK), one of the largest sources of terrorist
threat is believed to come from al Muhajiroun (ALM).1 Although ALM
(The Emigrants) no longer exists, those that continue to follow its ideol-
ogy represent the most enduring and publicly recognized radicalized
Islamic extremist group in the country. Their message is confrontational,
ultra conservative, and rooted in conservative Salafi based Islam. They
have revered individuals like Osama bin Laden (OBL) and Anwar Awlaki,
called the UK and US Governments terrorists, and openly promoted the
Khilafah (Caliphate)2 system of governance.
Many of its followers, including key leaders, have been linked and/or
convicted and imprisoned for a wide range of offenses. Those convictions,
the group’s open support for other radical groups, and other criminal
cases that directly or indirectly ‘link’ back to the group led the UK
Government to conclude that it is an organization involved in terrorism
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 3

and take punitive action. Despite significant efforts to suppress the group,
government efforts have had limited effect.
Following the Islamic State’s (IS) declaration that the Caliphate had
been re-established in 2014, the group was buzzing, and the UK
Government concluded that ALM was ‘re-energized in the UK.’3
In 2016, two of the group’s key leaders, Anjem Choudary and Mizanur
Rahman were convicted for lending support to the IS and both received
5½ year prison sentences. As is customary in the UK, they were released
in October 2018 to serve out the remainder of their time on license. Many
have since concluded that they are reconstituting their activities.
Despite gaining significant attention by government, academics, and
the media, much of what has been written about the group is derived from
limited access, secondary sources, or drawing conclusions based on piece-
mealing bits of information together. The result is that much of what is
known about the group is not actually correct and/or fails to appropri-
ately contextualize the group’s history, beliefs, practices, methods, and
threat in a way that facilitates a comprehensive understanding and effective
management.
This book provides a more thorough understanding about the group
and corrects much of the misinformation that exists. It charts its historical
development, delves deeply into the group’s ideology, provides a compre-
hensive understanding of its ideological relationship with groups like al
Qaeda (AQ) and the IS, explains why so many of its followers immigrated
to the IS, and provides a realistic threat assessment. In doing so, it corrects
fundamental attribution errors that currently exist such as: because the
group subscribes to a jihadi Salafist ideology, they have the same beliefs as
AQ or the IS; that the group remains as a clandestine organization and has
simply created spin off groups to avoid government suppression; that the
goal of the group is to turn Britain into a Muslim country; that group
leaders encouraged those within the movement to emigrate to the IS; that
the group is responsible for the vast majority of terror activity in the UK
and abroad; or that the group headed a vast network of extremist groups
across Europe, just to name a few. What follows is based on 9 years of
ethnographic research and close personalized interaction with those within
the group.
My research began in 2010 by making several exploratory trips to
London to establish key contacts.4 Although I had been doing background
research and tuning into the nightly Paltalk sessions for some time, on 06
4 D. WEEKS

May 2011, I attended the first of what would eventually amount to 29

protests over the years. As I approached, from more than a block away I
could hear shouts of Takbir! followed by the group’s response of Allah hu
Akbar.5 When I rounded the corner, I saw a seen that I would see repeated
many times; approximately 200 Muslim protesters holding signs saying
“Islam will dominate the world,” “Jihad to defend the Muslims,” and
“Injustice has been done- Imprisoned for no crime- Aafia Siddique.”6
Opposite the activists was a group of approximately 75 English Defense
League (EDL) members shouting “E…D…E.D.L, E…D…E.D.L,” with
approximately 75 police in ‘high viz’ jackets keeping the two apart.
At the conclusion of the protest, the police escorted the activists back
to Marble Arch tube station and I joined the procession at the rear. Despite
the police escort the EDL were close behind in hot pursuit. At one inter-
section a woman yelled out the window of a passing bus ‘Terrorists!’ and
when the traffic disrupted some of the police presence at the rear of the
procession, several of the EDL charged the activists only to be thrown to
the ground by the police and handcuffed.7 The years since have been an
enduring journey of close personal interaction with the activists and
their families.
To facilitate my research, I moved from southern California to London
to be close to the activists. Although I interacted with activists from Luton,
Leeds, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, and other cities around the country,
the majority of my interaction took place in London. The reason for that
is because most of the group’s leaders were based in east or north London
and that is where regular halaqah (study) sessions took place. For conve-
nience and ease of access, I rented a flat in the Isle of Dogs (a small island
immediately below Canary Wharf in east London). Logistically, it was the
perfect location. I was within walking distance of the halaqah sessions,
could attend the protests, and was readily available when impromptu
meetings took place.
During my years of interaction with the group, I engaged with the
entire spectrum of activists; from the newest potential followers to the
group’s leaders. In doing so, it gave me the opportunity to comprehen-
sively understand the group, why people became activists, why they left,
what their ideology was, what their goals were, what the methodology
was, what caused internal conflict, and how they continually ‘adjusted’ to
suppression by the authorities.
Although interacting with a wide range of individuals facilitated a com-
prehensive understanding, my primary interest has always been to engage
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 5

with group leaders. The rationale behind that approach comes from tradi-
tional ethnographic research methodology which advocates that if you
want to truly understand a group or culture, the way to do that is to
engage with group leaders and key actors.8 Interacting with others might
provide additional context or provide insights as to how people assimilate
into activism, but deeper knowledge comes from interacting with group
leaders and key actors. Thus, although the following chapters include ref-
erences from rank and file activists, the core aspects of this book are based
on my interaction with group leaders.
What follows is their story.

A Brief Introduction to Al Muhajiroun-

Contemporary Activists or Terror Network?
The ALM/Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah group (ALM/ASWJ) has been at
the forefront of pan European Islamist activism for over two decades. Its
principal leaders, Omar Bakri Mohammed (OBM) and Anjem Choudary,
have been linked to a variety of terror plots and widely reported to have
actively recruited for groups such as IS. The group has been proscribed
(legally banned) in several European countries yet continues to exist
despite strong government suppression and imprisonment of its leaders.
The group rose to prominence in the 1990s and has actively recruited
young impressionable youth to join their ranks for over two decades.
Several individuals who have had association with the group have gone on
to plan (e.g. Mohammed Choudhury et al.) or engage in acts of terrorism
(e.g. Michael Adebolajo, Khuram Butt, and Usman Khan). As such, the
group, its offshoots, and its affiliates are proscribed (legally banned) by the
UK Government because it believes that the group is ‘concerned in terror-
ism.’ Groups like The Henry Jackson Society and Hope not Hate consider
the group to be particularly dangerous and have published reports which
link the activists to a wide range of terror related criminal activity, plots,
and attacks.
The principal leader and ideologue, OBM, established ALM in Saudi
Arabia years before coming to Britain. After arriving in Britain in 1984,
Bakri spent 10 years running Hizb ut Tahrir (HT), another radical Islamist
group. Following several disputes with HT leaders, Bakri left the organi-
zation and established ALM in 1996.
6 D. WEEKS

ALM existed as a formal organization from 1996 to 2004 when it

v­ oluntarily disbanded. It functioned as an in your face type of organization
that routinely engaged in protests and leveraged the media’s coverage of
their activities to its fullest extent. ALM, vis-a-vis the media, became noto-
rious for making bold statements such as calling John Major, the then
residing Prime Minister of Britain ‘a legitimate target’ for assassination.9
Following the 9/11 attack, they referred to the 19 men who carried out
the attack as ‘the magnificent 19.’10 They even organized demonstrations
in front of the US Embassy to mourn the deaths of OBL and Anwar al-
Awlaki.11 Through their numerous protests, online activities, television
interviews, proselytizing, and publications, all of which were picked up by
the media, they delivered their message.
Known for its confrontational posture, ALM openly challenged the
West, its fundamental democratic principles, and the domestic and foreign
policies of Britain and America. ALM’s core belief was that divine law was
superior to that of man-made law. Their fundamental premise was that
man-made law was inconsistent and against the principles established in
the Qur’an. They argued that the law of today could be changed tomor-
row if doing so suited government. According to ALM doctrine, the
inconsistency and leniency that embodied man-made law was responsible
for many of the ills of contemporary society. Drinking, drugs, prostitution,
theft, pornography, adultery, and homelessness were routinely cited as
examples of how democracy and man-made law was failing. In contrast,
they argued that under the Khilafah12 system of governance, divine law
was consistent. Moreover, Islamic law had the necessary provisions to deal
with the contemporary issues affecting society. Alcohol and drugs would
be banned, the hands of thieves would be cut, and adulterers would be
stoned to death. Under the Khilafah system of governance, food, cloth-
ing, and shelter would be provided for all. Thus, by implementing the
shariah, (Literally ‘the path to the watering hole’; Islamic law based on
fiqh)13 not only would the ills of society be corrected, there would be no
usurpation of man-made law over what was divinely ordained. For OBM
and his followers, Islam, when embraced properly, represented a complete
way of life because it provided guidance to deal with the entire spectrum
of social, political, and personal challenges facing contemporary societies.
ALM used a variety of methods to convey their message. Protests were
routinely organized and served to articulate their grievances, recruit mem-
bers, and unify their ranks. Dawah (proselytization) stalls were organized
nearly every weekend where followers could engage with the public and
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 7

proselytize their message. Halaqah (study) sessions were held every week
so individuals could learn the religious and methodological principles of
the group. They also had a vibrant online presence where members, other
like-minded individuals, or people curious about their message could
check in and interact with ALM leadership, receive religious clarification
and guidance, and find out what the hot topics were that were affecting
Muslims around the globe.
ALM functioned openly as a legal organization until 2004 when it vol-
untarily disbanded. Almost immediately, former ALM members began
new organizations with the same ideological orientation which former
ALM members and others naturally flocked to. In, 2006, the government
took adverse action against the group and proscribed them.14 Since that
time, the group has continued to function but is better conceptualized as
a radical Islamist movement rather than an organizational body. That
change has significantly and continually challenged the UK Government
for more than decade.
Although the government can easily make it unlawful for a group such
as ALM to exist, it has no control over the way people think. In Britain,
the concept of free speech and protest has been practiced by its subjects/
citizens for centuries, and continues to be a coveted and enduring right.
Thus, although the government has taken numerous steps to eliminate or
at least silence the group, the group and their ideas remain steadfast and
their activism continues.

A Primer on Radicalization, Extremism,

and Terrorism

Before discussing the ALM/ASWJ movement in any detail, some of the

basic concepts regarding radicalization, extremism, and terrorism need to
be established. The genesis of what I refer to as contemporary Islamic
activism is rooted in two distinctly different but corresponding concepts;
radicalization and social movements. There is insufficient space to engage
in a comprehensive discussion about either term but some understanding
of those terms and how they are used in the UK is warranted so that what
follows can be positioned within the wider academic and political
environment.
Research into what is commonly referred to today as radicalism began
in the late 1960s. At that time and for the next two decades that followed,
researchers sought to explain why some individuals and groups targeted
8 D. WEEKS

civilians with violence.15 To explain such aberrant behavior, the widespread

belief was that individuals must have some kind of mental illness or
­personality disorder which led to such a radical mindset. Moreover, psy-
chologists believed that if a unique personality or mental disorder could be
identified, they could predict who was at risk of radicalizing and becoming
a terrorist.16 Although logical at the time, researchers were unable to find
any consistent evidence that a personality disorder or mental illness existed
in the subjects they studied. To the contrary, many began to assess that
their subjects were in fact quite normal.17
The lack of any supportive evidence linking personality disorders or men-
tal illness to radicalization, led researchers to begin utilizing more established
theories to explain radicalization such as Social Identity Theory (SIT),18
Relative Deprivation,19 Humiliation by Proxy,20 Frustration/Aggression
Theory,21 and Social Movement Theory (SMT).22 They simultaneously reen-
gaged in the age old debate regarding nature versus nurture and re-visited
other theories they thought might be valid in their attempt to explain radi-
calization, its stages, and its processes.23 However, despite 50+ years of radi-
calization scholarship, the current consensus is that the reasons individuals
radicalize are as diverse as the individuals themselves.24 In sum, there is no
universally accepted concept of radicalization or why an individual might
radicalize, yet radicalization remains largely attributed as the causal factor in
‘Islamist’ based violence.25
Although the concept of radicalization or what it means to be radical
was certainly around before 9/11, the term itself was rarely used and few if
any references can be found within the academic literature published from
that time.26 Even when the term was used, it was decidedly less pejorative
then it is today. That change is similarly noted by Schmid who suggests that
radicalism, or being a radical, has changed from being conceptualized as
someone who was liberal, pro-democratic, and/or took on a progressive
political position, to someone who is anti-liberal, fundamentalist, anti-
democratic, and regressive.27 During that transitional period, the concep-
tual notion of being a radical (a noun) was also expanded to include a verb
(radicalization) as a means to explain the process that an individual might
go through as his/her mindset changed.28
Regardless of whether one is referring to an individual (radical) or the
process that he/she may have gone through (radicalization), since 9/11
the use and branding of the terms have almost exclusively been negatively
stereotyped with Islamist terrorism. The mere mention that someone is
radicalized conjures up the stereotypical image of someone of Middle
Eastern or South Asian descent, long beard, closely shaved moustache,
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 9

wearing a skull cap, a tunic, and with mal intent hidden behind dark
­glaring eyes. In short, the conceptual nature of radicals and radicalization
has been hypersensitized and politicized. Moreover, it forgoes the reality
that few radicals engage in violence or that not everyone who engages in
terrorist violence is radical.29
In the UK, policy and strategy documents have closely associated radi-
calism and the threat of terrorism with Islamic extremism. Beginning with
the first publicly available version of CONTEST (the UK’s counter-­
terrorism strategy) in 2006, the term ‘radicalized’ became a common
means of referencing its perception of threat, saying unambiguously that
“The principal current terrorist threat is from radicalised individuals who
are using a distorted and unrepresentative version of the Islamic faith to
justify violence.”30
The 2006 version of CONTEST further characterizes what radicaliza-
tion is, and what radicals are, saying “It is also important to see this as a
two-stage process. An alienated individual who has become highly radi-
calised is not necessarily a terrorist. Only a tiny minority of radicalised
individuals actually cross over to become terrorists.”31
Despite the extensive use of the terms radicalized, radicalism, and radi-
calization throughout the 2006 version of CONTEST and the Prevent
Strategy released in 2007, it wasn’t until the 2009 version of CONTEST
that radicalization was actually defined by the UK Government. The gov-
ernment assessed that radicalization was one of the four strategic drivers of
terrorism and defined it as “the process by which people come to support
violent extremism and, in some cases, join terrorist groups.”32 When the
CONTEST strategy was updated in 2011 its definition was changed
slightly but remained no less pejorative; “Radicalisation refers to the pro-
cess by which a person comes to support terrorism and forms of extrem-
ism leading to terrorism.”33 Despite a new Counter-Extremism Strategy
being released in 2015 and a new CONTEST Strategy being released in
2018, the UK Government has continued to use its established definitions
which link radicalization to violence.
The UK Government’s view of radicalism is not significantly different
than Silber and Bhatt’s infamous NYPD report in which they theorized a
four-step process to radicalization which directly or indirectly culminates
in violence.34 Although Silber later modified his position,35 the original
Silber and Bhatt report stated that “Entering the process does not mean
one will progress through all four stages and become a terrorist. However,
…[they] may serve as mentors and agents of influence to those who might
become the terrorists of tomorrow.”36
10 D. WEEKS

When an intrinsic link is thought to exist between radicalization and

violence, that belief is commonly referred to as ‘the conveyor belt theory.’
The conveyor belt theory is typically attributed to Baran (an FBI agent)
who assessed that HT was ‘a conveyor belt to violence.’37 Given that radi-
calized individuals and groups ultimately confront and challenge existing
political structures, it is not surprising that governments in general would
see it as a threat to the status quo.
Despite the fear by governments that radicalization will somehow ulti-
mately lead to violence, there is substantial criticism from academics on
this assumption. For instance, Borum argues “Most radicals did not (and
do not) engage in terrorism, and many terrorists did not (and do not)
‘radicalize’ in any traditional sense.”38 Mandel is another who challenges
government’s assumption that radicalization and violence go hand in hand
stating “although radicalisation increases the potential for …violence, it
does not necessitate any of them.”39 Mandel further reinforces his argu-
ment stating, “Simply put, radicalisation cannot be a sufficient cause of
terrorism because most radicals are not terrorists.”40 Schmid also con-
cludes, “It does not follow that a radical attitude must result in violent
behaviour – a finding well established by decades of research.”41
In the UK, the debate about radicalism and what role, if any, it plays in
violence has added to a growing division between government and com-
munities, and even within government. A 2010 report issued by the
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) offered its
assessment stating “Terms such as ‘radicalism’, ‘extreme’, ‘Islamist’ and
‘fundamentalism’ are too often conflated to mean ‘violent extremism’,
even though those who ascribe to one of these terms do not necessarily
support, or engage, in violence.”42 Thus, there exists two distinct camps in
how radicalization is conceptualized; those that automatically attribute it
to violence and those that do not.
For those that study radicalization, there is a distinction made between
‘cognitive radicalization’ and ‘behavioral radicalization.’ The academic
debate on what if any relationship the two might share is often fierce but
most are turning away from the notion of the conveyer belt theory, accept-
ing that if cognitive radicalization has any role at all in violence, it may be
just one of several ‘action pathways’ that lead people into violence.43 On
that theme, Horgan has argued that “If our ultimate objective is to stem
and control the growth of terrorism, a central [and] continuing focus on
[cognitive] radicalization may ultimately prove unnecessary.”44 Although
it remains a source of academic debate, most who actually engage with
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 11

extremists argue that one does not preclude the other, the role of cogni-
tive radicalization in behavioral radicalization is situational at best, and
that context matters significantly.
Notwithstanding the arguments above, the idea that radicals (noun) go
through a process of radicalization (verb), there is arguably a loss of logic
in the UK Government’s definitions of radicalism and extremism which
detracts from understanding radicals and what it means to be extreme in
more useful ways. Intuitively, if individuals progress through different
phases of cognitive radicalization, each becoming more extreme until
behavioral radicalization (violence) is adopted, then radicalization would
represent a continuum. At one end of the spectrum there would be the
initial stages of non-violent but radical thought and at the other end of the
spectrum there would be violent action. Logically, as more and more radi-
cal beliefs are internalized, the person would progress from simply having
radical beliefs to someone whose beliefs were assessed to be extreme.
However, the UK Government’s definitions don’t support that intuitive
and logical progression.
Despite academic assessments to the contrary, the UK Government
continues to use the 2011 definition which establishes a clear link between
radicalization and violent action, yet within its definition of extremism,
one could be extreme and not engage in violence.
Extremism is defined as-

… the vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including

democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and toler-
ance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of
extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in
this country or overseas.45

Setting aside the last sentence which appears to be an awkward and last
minute add on that advocates the death of those in the armed forces,
which all except for a very small minority would agree represents extrem-
ism, the definition above is a juxtaposition of conceptual ideas and intui-
tive logic about what it means to be radical or extreme. In other words, to
be radical, as the definition confirms, one must ultimately support or be
explicitly involved in violence. However, to be extreme, one must simply
adopt and vocalize a belief that embraces a different set of values, respect,
and/or another form of governance. Using the example of highly conser-
vative but non-violent Salafis (quietist Salafis), the UK definitions would
categorize them as extremists but not radical.
12 D. WEEKS

To avoid the politicized and contentious definitions contained in the

UK strategy documents, or the unsupported association of radicalism with
violence, this book posits that there are simpler and more normative ways
of conceptualizing and defining radicals and radicalization. In the most
basic of terms, a radical is simply “a person who advocates thorough or
complete political or social reform.”46 Another simplistic but useful way of
understanding what makes someone a ‘radical’ is “anyone who advocates
far reaching and fundamental change in a political system. Literally, a radi-
cal is one who proposes to attack some political or social problem by going
deep into the socio-economic fabric to get at the fundamental or root
cause and alter this basic social weakness.”47 Arguably, these definitions are
more accurate and useful to describe what being radical is and universally
increases the understanding because they can be applied equally and with-
out prejudice whether one is referring to a ‘radicalized Islamist’ or a ‘radi-
cal politician.’
During David Cameron’s 2011 speech at the Munich Security
Conference, while discussing the threats associated with radicalization and
terrorism he stated, “Now for sure, they don’t turn into terrorists over-
night, but what we see…is a process of radicalisation.”48 Cameron’s solu-
tion was plain, simple, and direct “We have got to get to the root of the
problem, and we need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of these
terrorist attacks lie. That is, the existence of an ideology, Islamism extrem-
ism.”49 Interestingly, Cameron’s approach to solving the radicalization
problem falls squarely within the previous definitions of what it means to
be radical.
Cameron’s 2011 speech inferred that radicalization was about ideology
and he confirmed that more clearly in another speech in Birmingham in
2015 saying, “No, we must be clear. The root cause of the threat we face
is the extremist ideology itself.”50 The issue of ideology can arguably be
one that is a source of threat, and particularly when groups like AQ and
the IS call for followers to take up arms in their countries of origin.
However, as I discuss in a later chapter, ideology can also establish critical
boundaries and safeguards against violence.
Rather than attempt to explain Islamic activism from a purely academic
or government point of view, this book uses a more normative approach.
It posits that by using the previous definitions and related explanations of
radicalism, the contextual nature and cultural understanding of radicalism
and how it manifests as activism is explainable. Moreover, despite the
numerous theories that attempt to explain radicalization by arguing that
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 13

there are ‘push/pull factors’ present, that individuals radicalize because of

‘frame alignment,’ or that ‘pop jihadism’ is to blame,51 this book argues
that those theories often fail to appreciate the basic conditions that make
individuals vulnerable to radical messaging in the first place. Instead, I
posit that radicalization begins much earlier and is most often the result of
disaffection caused by the loss of social and political agency. That loss
erodes the social and political capital required for individuals to accept the
current social and political status quo and they seek an alternative.
That view is undoubtedly too simplistic for many to accept but I stand
by that premise and give examples in later chapters to support that conclu-
sion. The argument here is that no one goes to be bed the night content
with the existing social and political order and then wakes up in the morn-
ing thinking “I really like the ideology of al Muhajiroun, the Islamic State,
or al Qaeda.” More appropriately, there is a slow degradation of social and
political agency that takes place and individuals begin to simultaneously
question their own identity. When the loss of social and political capital
reaches a tipping point, and their identity is in question, individuals begin
to think there must be a better way. This, I suggest is arguably when radi-
calization starts.52 Additionally, radicalization spans a wide variety of polit-
icized thought. Some will simply become susceptible to radical messaging
while others begin to seek alternatives to the status quo. Even those that
begin a search for something different, it takes time, commitment, and
socialization before an alternative ideological orientation is fully adopted.
Even then, there is little chance the person world ever become involved in
violent action.
Despite the considerable diversity in radicalization theories, concepts,
and definitions, once radicalization has begun, three very general funda-
mental needs appear time and time again: the response to perceived injus-
tice, the need for social ties, and the need for meaning/identity.53 Venhaus
characterizes this best when he says, “the recurring theme was that they
were all looking for something…they want to understand who they are,
why they matter, and what their role in the world should be.”54 Moreover,
groups like IS and AQ understand this perhaps better than most govern-
ments do. The IS has capitalized on that vulnerability by offering prom-
ises of adventure, marriage, and being a part of a new society where
housing, food, and electricity are provided.55 That messaging clearly finds
resonance with those who are socially and politically disaffected. More
appropriately, it signals the evolution of jihadist recruitment from one
which has been traditionally based on ideology to one that is best
14 D. WEEKS

described as ‘pop jihadism’; where individuals no longer need to embrace

extreme religious beliefs or adopt radical ideology, they simply join in
search of adventure, to prove their worth, seek an alternative to the exist-
ing social and social order, or to fight a noble battle.56
Although some may accept that a different reality is possible and leave
to join groups like the IS and AQ, others will stay behind for any number
of familial, economic, or personal reasons. For those that remain, many
choose activism. Moreover, by conceptualizing Islamic activism within a
social movement context, the individuals who come together and form
alliances to “confront elites, authorities, or other opponents” by engaging
in ‘contentious politics’ can be better understood.57

A Case for Primary Data Through Engagement

Following the 9/11 attacks, Silke aptly characterized the state of terrorism
research saying “…80 per cent of all research on terrorism is based either
solely or primarily on data gathered from books, journals, the media, or
other published documents.”58 He goes on to say “It [terrorism studies]
exists on a diet of fast-food research: quick, cheap, ready-to-hand and
nutritionally dubious.”59
Since 9/11, radicalization and violent opposition to government and
society has evolved to include new levels of extremism. The emergence of
the IS and attacks which occurred across Europe between 2014 and 2017
are certainly a good example of that evolution. In response, a virtual wave
of books on radicalization and terrorism has been published. Even as early
as 2007, Silke commented during an interview that a new English lan-
guage terrorism book was being published every six minutes.60 Whether
Silke’s comment is factual or simply a characterization of the massive
increase in publications since 9/11 is unknown but the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq, the evolution of the Arab Spring, the IS, and the resurgence of
white nationalism have surely turned what was previously a wave into a
full-blown tsunami. However, despite the massive increase in publications,
terrorism research continues to be largely based on unreliable and incor-
rect data because so few researchers actually talk to, much less have mean-
ingful conversations with the people they write about.61
One would logically think that the importance given to terrorism in
contemporary society would mean that those engaged in radicalization
and terrorism studies would naturally seek to correct the gap that exists by
obtaining primary data and engage with the very people and processes
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 15

that they profess to have expertise about. However, that is clearly not the
case. The continued lack of primary data on radicalism, terrorists, and ter-
rorist groups remains well documented in the literature.62 This reality is
not new either as Crenshaw noted two decades ago saying “The study of
terrorism still lacks the foundation of extensive primary data based on
interviews and life histories of individuals involved in terrorism.”63
Underscoring that little has changed, Ranstorp recently concluded that
“Far too much terrorism research is based on secondary sources which
contribute to systematic bias and circular analytical loops.”64 He goes on
to say “Field research is essential in verifying ‘circular truth,’ debunking
myths and information, and unlocking new perspectives into the specific
research issue.”65
Another uncomfortable truth is that not only do most terrorism
researchers not speak to the people they write about, some view not talk-
ing to terrorists as a means of establishing their own scholarly credibility
because it avoids giving publicity to and/or legitimizing the actions of
the extremists.66 Similarly, Dershowitz argues that addressing the griev-
ances of terrorists gives efficacy to their cause. As a result, he argues, that
we should do exactly the opposite—“never try to understand or eliminate
its alleged root causes.”67 Regardless of the motivations, Dolnik’s assess-
ment is that the continued lack of primary data, creates a ‘closed and
circular research system’ where fundamental errors are repeated, and that
much of the research is approached from a government perspective
whereby inherent biases, including the conveyor belt theory, continue to
be reinforced.68
Perhaps the most uncomfortable of these realities is that radicalized
extremists and those that engage in violent action are often willing to tell
their side of the story if one is willing to take the initiative to engage with
them.69 Thus, for those willing to go out into the field to engage with the
people they claim to have expertise about, the possibilities are endless and
often leads to new insights, understandings, and high-quality publish-
able research.
This book does not propose to answer all the questions that exist about
radicalization, extremist groups, or terrorism, nor is it generalizable to
every group, every individual, or every cause. It does offer what is hoped
to be valuable insight on what I refer to as contemporary radicalized
Islamic activism in Britain and specifically, the ALM/ASWJ movement. It
provides an up close and personal assessment that the group is in fact a
radical social movement rather than a terrorist entity as they are commonly
16 D. WEEKS

assessed to be. That assessment is supported through in depth research

and engagement to understand the group’s history, beliefs, and activities.
Additionally, it concludes that the threat of violence does not emanate
from those that are the true believers within the group but rather those
that ultimately conclude that the group is not radical enough.

This Book and Its Position in Terrorism Studies

This book in many ways simply tells a story; the story of a single case study,
ALM and its transition to the ASWJ movement. It covers the group’s his-
tory, methods of activism, fundamental belief systems, the efforts and
impacts of deterrence by government, how they compare to other Islamist
groups (AQ and IS) and offers a more informed and realistic threat assess-
ment. It is a structured pedagogy that mixes traditional academic writing
with ethnographic research. Importantly, it uses a semi-storytelling format
so that the reader can understand the environment and the individuals
involved at a deeper level. It does not take sides with the group or the
government, it simply tells the story from a first-hand view of how the
activists think and act, and how government responds.
As mentioned, much of what is known about radicalization, extremism,
and the antecedents that drive individuals to engage in violent action
remains largely conceptual. That should not be taken to mean that there
are not camps of well known and respected academics who are willing to
vehemently protect their conclusions and assessments about this environ-
ment. An example of perhaps two of the best known and respected aca-
demics who have fiercely debated their positions are Bruce Hoffman and
Marc Sageman. Hoffman asserted that the biggest threat to the West
comes from groups like AQ and its affiliates who continually move like a
shark and maintain a structured hierarchical organizational order.70 In
response, Sageman asserted that since 2003, the threat has changed to one
of ‘leaderless jihad’ where small disconnected groups and individuals are
bound by ideology rather than a hierarchical organization. The result is
they pose a greater threat because they are harder to disrupt.71
To say that terrorism studies is increasingly taking on a polemic tone is
an understatement. Whether it comes from highly respected academics
such as Hoffman, Silke, Horgan, Sageman, or someone less well known,
academics are expected to publish regularly and are constantly vying for
recognition and influence. As such, it would be in error to suggest that the
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 17

pressure to publish does not adversely affect the data. For instance, Silke,
has argued that research was essentially about the creation of knowledge
through exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory methods, and assessed
that the majority of research was either too exploratory or too descriptive
and the data was not rigorous enough to allow for explanatory or predic-
tive assessment.72 In support of his assessment he concluded that “In only
one percent of reports are interviews conducted in a systematic and struc-
tured manner.”73 Silke further assessed that they were ad hoc, opportunis-
tic, or semi-structured at best.74
Similar to Silke’s concerns, Horgan stated that many of the interviews
conducted by academics with ‘an actual terrorist’ amount to nothing more
than what he described as “a personal or journalistic account, and at worse
an unfettered ego trip.”75 Advocating that greater rigor needs to be
brought to terrorism research, Horgan argues that terrorism researchers
should structure their interviews more rigidly and he makes suggestions
on the kinds of questions that should be asked.76 Although Silke and
Horgan make a viable argument in some regards, the reality is that groups
and the individuals that make them up vary widely. Interviews have to be
tailored to the group, the moment, and the individual being interviewed.
That reality is supported by Dolnik who acknowledges that “Most inter-
views in the terrorism studies field are unstructured, using open-ended
questions in order to allow for greater breadth of data.”77 Thus, while
certain kinds of questions and structure might be preferred for some
researchers, I rejected following too rigid a model as it would significantly
limit the ability to understand a group like the ALM/ASWJ movement.
Sageman has also argued that “the rush of newcomers into the field had
a deleterious effect on [terrorism] research.”78 The result being that “The
same worn-out questions are raised over and over again, and we still have
no compelling answers.”79 He goes on to criticize several quarters before
eventually focusing his frustration on the gulf that exists between the
intelligence and academic communities ultimately assessing that “intelli-
gence analysts know everything but understand nothing, while academics
understand everything but know nothing.”80 Sageman concludes his cri-
tique arguing that the problem could be solved if there was closer
­interaction between the intelligence community and a small cadre of capa-
ble academics (presumably himself included). Although the UK intelli-
gence community may be critical of my assessments regarding ALM/
ASWJ and academics such as Horgan, Sageman, and others may be critical
of the methodology used in this book, there are arguably multiple paths
18 D. WEEKS

that can be taken in the development of knowledge. As Maxwell once

argued, practical and ethical problems arise when attempts are made to use
too rigid a methodological approach because there is a very real risk of “…
shoehorning questions, methods, and data into preconceived categories
and preventing the researcher from seeing events and relationships that
don’t fit the theory.”81
Last, this book attempts to avoid the persistent pitfalls articulated by
Dolnik; the lack of primary data, ‘closed and circular research systems’ are
perpetuated, and fundamental errors are repeated because the research is
approached from a government perspective whereby inherent biases,
including the conveyor belt theory, continue to be reinforced.82 Although
one can never be completely free of bias, a concerted effort was made dur-
ing this research to view the activists through a neutral lens rather than a
securitized one. That approach was chosen to maximize understanding
rather than influencing the data by preemptively framing the activists as a
security threat. In that spirit, I stand by my assessments and no apologies
are offered.

The Ethnographic Approach

The impetus for this book is rooted in the 9 years of ethnographic research
I’ve done on the ALM/ASWJ Movement. The choice behind that
approach was a personal one rather than an academic one. During the last
14 years of my fire service career, I was tasked with developing and teach-
ing response protocol to police and fire agencies in Southern California so
they could respond effectively and collectively to chemical, biological,
radiological and explosive terrorist incidents. In order or develop those
protocols, I spent a great deal of time during the late 1990s and 2000s in
Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland studying terrorism and counter-
terrorism with the police, fire, emergency medical, military, bomb squads,
religious leaders, and the extremists/terrorists in those countries. That
experience allowed me to intimately understand each government’s posi-
tion on radicalized groups but found the realities on the ground were
often very different.
When I engaged with those who were considered the terrorists, I found
their grievances rarely matched those commonly repeated in government
circles or that I was seeing in the intelligence reports or briefings I
attended. The more I engaged with those considered radicalized, extrem-
ists, and terrorists, the more I wanted to see firsthand, understand, and
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 19

have a full appreciation for the ‘lived experience and experiential world’ of
those individuals.83 Thus, for me, the only way to gain full appreciation of
the ‘lived experience’ was to engage with those individuals through close
personal and repeated contact. That is not to say that I didn’t also engage
in desk-based research. Rather I used my personal interaction with those
considered extremists and terrorists to contextualize, substantiate, and in
some cases refute my desk-based understanding. When I began my
research on ALM/ASWJ, I used that same approach.
Ethnography can mean different things to different people but is tradi-
tionally considered an art and a science to describe a group or culture
through thick description.84 Specifically, thick description refers to provid-
ing firsthand knowledge of cultural contexts and meanings of individual
and group beliefs and actions so that people outside the group can make
sense of their behavior.85
As a research methodology, ethnography is particularly well-suited to
study a group like ALM/ASWJ because it provides “a descriptive account
of social life and culture in a particular social system, based on detailed
observations of what people actually do…especially in relation to groups,
organizations, and communities that are part of larger and more complex
societies.”86 It does not attempt to prove and disprove a deductive hypoth-
esis, nor does it attempt to develop any theories beyond that which can be
applied to the group. It simply tells a story with the ability to position that
story within a larger and more complex social and political structure.
One of the disadvantages of ethnography is that you can only tell the
story based on what you observe or your interactions when you are there.
In the case of ALM/ASWJ, one could argue that the movement actually
started in 1984 when OBM came to Britain, or perhaps even earlier when
he was in Saudi Arabia. Because I did not begin interacting with the group
until 2011, their early history had to be first gleaned from media reports
and other academic works. In order to substantiate, contextualize, and in
some cases refute what was reported, interviews were conducted with
those in the movement during that time. Thus, the early chapters are
based on key interviews with OBM and a few others whereas later chapters
draw on a wider group of interviews, events, and more ethnographic
accounts. To that end, this book relies on my firsthand ethnographic expe-
riences with the ALM/ASWJ movement and further supplements that
with traditional academic research, and personal interviews in order to tell
the history of ALM/ASWJ and establish a comprehensive description and
understanding of the movement.
20 D. WEEKS

This Book and Its Theoretical Approach

My observation as a former practitioner and now academic, is that govern-
ments and researchers often attempt to fit individuals, groups, and ideolo-
gies into pre-determined theoretical constructs. Sageman makes a strong
argument for that case when he says, “All too often, terrorism scholars
take the outside perspective of the state, reducing terrorists into stereo-
types.”87 The reason they do that is to understand and analyze them in a
way that is more logical for the researcher or practitioner. However, there
are inherent problems with that approach. When researchers categorize
individuals into pre-determined categories or theoretical constructs, there
is the risk of analyzing them from their own epistemological and ontologi-
cal orientation rather than attempt to appreciate and understand the indi-
vidual or group’s epistemological and ontological realities.88
To avoid as much bias as possible, this book uses a few theoretical con-
structs to frame the discussion and draw its understandings and conclu-
sions. The overarching framework used in this research was/is SMT told
through thick description. It is grounded in the established theories of
leaders in the SMT field such as Zald and McCarthy who conclude that
“One of the most promising theoretical frameworks applied to under-
standing radicalization processes…is Social Movement Theory.”89
Similarly, Tarrow’s explanation that SMT is useful in understanding how
ordinary people come together and form alliances to “confront elites,
authorities, or other opponents by engaging in ‘contentious politics’” fits
the actions of ALM/ASWJ perfectly.90
Perhaps the strongest support for using SMT to understand ALM/
ASWJ comes from Della Porta and Diani who characterize social move-
ments as “conscious actors making rational choices” to confront existing
governmental and social norms.91 Della Porta and Diani further define
social movements as “informal networks, based on shared beliefs and soli-
darity, which mobilize around conflictual [sic] issues, through the fre-
quent use of forms of protest.”92 Robinson similarly ways in saying that
using SMT to analyze case studies is particularly appropriate because it
provides a more thorough understanding of how changes in political
opportunity increase or decrease collective action, what the mobilizing
factors are for collective action (formal or informal, open or underground),
and how SMT allows for the inclusion of culture, so that the individual’s/
group’s history and symbolism are contextually understood.93 Finally,
Mazarr points out that Islamism requires contextualization and should be
seen as mass movements.94
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 21

There are some limitations to SMT however. The first is that while
there is no established number to define when a group becomes a social
movement, social movements are generally conceived to have a certain
mass behind them. Even at the height of the ALM organization, the
group’s members numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands. As such,
depending on how one conceives what a social movement is, there is a
certain risk of conflating the group beyond its actual influence. That said,
while the core ALM/ASWJ group constitutes a small radical group within
the UK with a small number of ‘affiliates’ in Europe and North America,
it is simultaneously part of the larger global Islamist movement. Moreover,
groups like AQ and IS have had significant influences on ALM/ASWJ and
thus, it needs to be understood against the backdrop of the wider global
movements and influences.
Another limitation is that while SMT is well suited to conceptually
explain movements, it is limited in its explanation of individuals. Although
this book remains broadly focused on understanding the history, activities,
interactions with government, ideology of the ALM/ASWJ movement as
a whole, one cannot understand the group without understanding some
of the individual dynamics of the group’s leaders. As such, there is some
use of Tajfel and Turner’s SIT to help explain some of the individuals,
their actions, as well as group and intergroup conflict.95
SIT is also very helpful in explaining the conflict between dominate and
subordinate groups, and how individual and group identity is formed. The
relationship between the British Government and ALM/ASWJ fits well
within the notion of in-group and out-group relationships with the former
doing all it can to maintain the status quo while the latter strives to develop
a strong group identity where positions are hardened, the ‘other’ is deval-
ued, and moral superiority is claimed by both sides.96
Last, while SMT and SIT are useful in explaining the group, its indi-
viduals, and their relationship with government, one must accept that the
ontological realities of both government and ALM/ASWJ are fiercely tied
to their epistemological experiences. In many ways, the organizational cul-
ture of government and that of ALM/ASWJ is just as insular. To appreci-
ate the social and political processes that drive the beliefs and action of
both groups, this book appreciates that social constructivism defines how
both groups interpret one another through their own relativism.97 As
Borum notes, people see the world based their own “…internal map of
reality, not reality itself.”98
22 D. WEEKS

To assist the reader in their understanding of the ALM/ASWJ move-

ment, a conclusion is provided at the end of each chapter. The conclusion
re-visits the chapter’s main themes and discusses them through the lens of
SMT, SIT, and social constructivism so the material is understood in the
appropriate context.

Practical Methods, Opportunities, and Brick Walls

Researching those considered radicalized extremists in the West is decid-
edly easier than researching the same kinds of individuals in the Middle
East or in various conflict zones around the world. One does not have to
worry to the same degree about getting caught up in violence, dealing
with translators, taking additional precautions to protect critical data, or
dealing with repressive governments and their security services who oper-
ate with a different set of rules than those generally found in the West.
However, just because the individuals are in a Western country does not
mean that one can simply show up, conduct a meaningful interview, obtain
the data that is needed, then hop on an airplane, go back to wherever
home base is, and claim to provide valuable insight about such individuals
or groups. Arguably, this applies regardless of where on the globe
that might be.
I will join my polemic colleagues and state that there are serious limita-
tions in much of the terrorism research because most researchers aren’t
afforded sufficient time on the ground to get past the superficialities of
their interviews. Additionally, no matter how many fixers and gatekeepers
are used, they only provide initial access and people just don’t open up and
have meaningful conversations with people they don’t know. It takes time
and trust to get good data and most researchers aren’t afforded either. It
is not uncommon for methodology sections to be left out of academic
studies, books, reports, and articles, even those written by some of the
most respected academics.99 I suspect for the very reason that authors are
reticent about exposing the limitations of their research.
The data for this book was obtained over a 9-year period between 2010
and 2019. It began when I started my PhD at the University of St Andrews,
Scotland. From the onset, the goal was to develop new primary data with
a bottom up perspective that was actually usable to practitioners, policy
makers, and academics about radicalized individuals and the groups they
belonged to. That choice, as discussed earlier, was driven by my previous
professional life after I became critical of the limitations of understanding
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 23

that government had regarding such groups and individuals, and how I
saw that manifest as ill-conceived policy, ineffective strategy, and poor tac-
tical decision making.
As mentioned, one does not simply show up and start trolling for data
with a group like ALM. To gain access, I first read everything that was
published about them and then began attending their protests. I simulta-
neously pumped as much background information as I could out of my
law enforcement contacts which, as it turned out, was quite limited. It
soon became apparent that because I was engaging with the group, some
of my law enforcement contacts wanted to use me for intelligence gather-
ing purposes, offering that if I told them what I was finding out about the
group, they would do the same. That was not ethically possible and I was
forced to limit my contact with them.
Once I began attending the protests, my presence started to become
familiar to the activists and two things happened very early on. The first is
that the activists became curious and approached me to find out who I was,
what I was doing there, and why I had interest in them. I responded hon-
estly, explained my research, and the reasons for it. The second thing that
happened is that some of the group’s leaders immediately labeled me as a
spy. To them, I was either working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or some other agency, but
either way, I was a spy. My American accent, age, short hair, demeanor, and
general ‘government’ looking appearance made me an easy target for
such labeling.
Despite the limiting stereotype, the more protests I attended, human
nature gradually took over, and the more people began to interact. All
were guarded and many skeptical, but simultaneously curious. It was not
uncommon in the first year to be approached and the conversation to
begin with ‘so, what’s new with the CIA this week?’ However, bit by bit,
they began to accept my presence and eventually me. It wasn’t long before
people began acknowledging my presence with a friendly hello.
I also ran into some brick walls, although ironically, more so with those
who had left the movement years before than the activists themselves. A
case in point is Chap. 3 which documents some of the historical aspects of
ALM (1996–2004). In preparation for my interview with OBM, a year by
year media search (1996–2004) was conducted in order to establish some
of ALM’s history. During my interviews with OBM, we explored several
of these areas and in some cases, I was able to get confirmation of the
events from other sources. However, when I attempted to confirm OBM’s
24 D. WEEKS

recollection of the events, with others that were in leadership roles at that
time but had since left the movement, I was shut down.
In one case I made contact with a senior leader through Facebook and
was soon ignored. In another case I met a senior leader who first agreed to
help but then refused to provide any comments. In yet another case, a
trusted intermediary helped facilitate some dialogue with another senior
leader but the former ALM leader changed his mind at the last minute,
choosing instead to send an article as his response. The article was titled
‘The Science of Spying: How the CIA Secretly recruits Academics.’
Ironically, in all three cases, the individuals belonged to ALM when it
operated as a legal entity and left once it was proscribed.
As an ethnographer, it is important to remember that you are in it for
the long haul, not to grab a bit of data here, a sound bite there, and return
to wherever home base is. As such, the importance of patience, presence,
and sincerity cannot be overstated. As Dolnik writes, “interviews with ter-
rorists almost never yield any groundbreaking information, especially when
this is the first encounter between the researcher and interviewee.”100 I
found this to be incredibly true when interacting with ALM/ASWJ follow-
ers and leadership. Although trust was built over time, it took several
months of listening patiently to the evils of the West, the supremacy of
divine law, the impacts that the war on terrorism has had on Muslims
around the globe, and the oppression that the activists endured from the
British Government and elsewhere before any meaningful dialog took place.
One of the things that is decidedly true is that the activists have mas-
tered the language of rhetoric; they know the issues and are quick to use
them when speaking to the media and those they do not know or trust.
Moreover, each time that I engaged with someone new, the entire process
of listening to the evils of the West, divine law, etc. started all over again.
Although it took time, trust was established, and real conversations with-
out the sound bites and rhetoric began to take place. Depending on which
individual was being engaged, there was, and still is a stratification of
openness and dialog that continues to this day. However, many of the
leaders eventually accepted that I wasn’t there to spy on them or deride
them, I simply wanted to learn, and that is when the real interaction began.
As mentioned, much of what is currently understood about the ALM/
ASWJ movement is derived from limited access, secondary sources, or
conclusions drawn by piecemealing bits of information together. This
book serves to correct those areas of misunderstanding and contextualize
what is known about the group more comprehensively. To do so, this
book engages in several areas of inquiry.
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 25

• The first is to provide a detailed understanding of contemporary

Islamic activism used by the ALM/ASWJ movement. Although it is
not meant to be generalizable to every Western society, it does pro-
vide valuable insight into how such groups think and operate.
• The second area of inquiry is that this book positions radical Islamic
thought in context. Although Salafism is routinely characterized as
non-violent but highly conservative Islam, it is commonly associated
with violent radicalism. As such, this book juxtaposes IS, AQ, and
ALM ideologies so that there is greater understanding of violent and
non-violent Islamic thought.
• The third area of inquiry is that it positions the activism undertaken
by ALM within a more balanced understanding of belief, mobiliza-
tion, and threat than is commonly reported. It specifically discusses
the group’s beliefs and the boundaries that are imposed by
those beliefs.
• Last, this book provides critical insights on the action/reaction cycle
that occurs when suppression techniques are employed by govern-
ment to disrupt such groups. Although some actions may seem per-
fectly logical, some undermine the very security they intend to
provide. Thus, there are valuable policy implications that should be
usable to others.

The data obtained for this book is a mixture of primary and secondary
sources. Some historical accounts had to be derived from media reports
and other academic sources, but they are further contextualized by data
obtained from interviews, observing the activists in their ‘natural setting,’
and prolonged personal interaction. Consistent with ethnographic meth-
ods, the data is nearly all qualitative.
As mentioned, the data collection for this book took place over a 9-year
period between 2011 and 2019. In sum, I conducted 257 interviews with
118 different individuals. The interviews are broken down as follows: 148
interviews with 51 current and former ALM/ASWJ activists (primarily
group leaders) and their families, 36 interviews with 14 law enforcement
and probation officers, 30 interviews with 20 citizens and community
activists, 13 interviews with 7 mosque and religious leaders, 13 interviews
with 11 intervention providers (mentors); 9 interviews with academics,
researchers, and think tanks, 2 interviews with 2 local government repre-
sentatives, 2 interviews with 2 elected officials, 3 interviews were con-
ducted with current or past HT leaders, and 1 interview was conducted
with a leading radical preacher who was deported from Britain and now
26 D. WEEKS

lives in Jordan. Although there was some engagement and interviews were
conducted with female family members of the activists, nearly all of the
activist interviews were with males. To engage with ultra conservative
Muslim females would in most cases require a male to be present, thus
making the data somewhat questionable because of the reflexive influences
involved. As such, the females within the movement were largely avoided.
Most of the interviews were conducted between 2011 and 2016 (see
Appendix 1). The reason for that is that the movement scaled back consid-
erably on their protest, halaqah, and dawah, activities following the
imprisonment of Anjem Choudary and Mizanur Rahman in 2016. Placing
four of the movement’s other leaders on Terrorism Prevention and
Investigation Measure (TPIM)101 that same year further limited the move-
ment’s activities. Interviews still took place after 2016 but were more lim-
ited in number and focused on the other key ideologues such as Abu
Qatada, the family members of the activists, and the remaining leaders.
In additional to the interviews, I attended 29 protests, interacted
nightly with the group online, sat in on 20 closed halaqah (study) ses-
sions, was present at three trials, and conducted participant observation at
8 dawah stalls. My access is best described as a combination of opportu-
nity sampling and the use of snowballing techniques102 which then led to
more trusted one on one engagement with group leaders.
Nearly all of the interviews were semi-structured, while others were
done on the fly at protests, dawah stalls, before and after halaqah sessions,
and at courthouses. Some were relatively brief lasting just a few minutes
while others lasted for hours or even days. For instance, when I inter-
viewed OBM at his home in Tripoli, Lebanon, the interview consisted of
approximately 18 hours of discussion over a three-­day period. Repeated
interviews/discussions/meetings with group leaders also resulted in
countless hours of one on one engagement that added understanding to
not only their beliefs, but also context to the back story of certain events,
protests, and individuals.
A small number of interviews were recorded (28) but most were cap-
tured using field notes. Generally speaking, people are reticent about
being tape recorded so field notes were the norm. Most fieldnotes were
re-written as soon as possible in electronic format for easier saving and
thematic analysis. When observing the protests and dawah stalls, field
notes and pictures were taken to document my observations then re-­
written and contextualized once the opportunity was available.
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 27

Not all interviews or observations provided new or immediately useful

information. As such, some remained as handwritten field notes. The best
example of this is the dawah stalls where I observed the same scenario
occurring time and again. The activists would attempt to engage with those
passing by, but their efforts were typically ignored. When conversations did
take place, they were almost always brief lasting a few seconds to maybe a
minute. Once the individual moved on, any materials that they were pro-
vided were typically found in a rubbish can nearby or simply discarded on
the street.103 In short, I didn’t find much usable information from observ-
ing the dawah (proselytizing) stalls. Unless I knew that a particular activist
would be there that I wanted to speak to, I stopped observing them.
Although interviews are the bread and butter of academic research, one
of the benefits of ethnographic study, if done correctly, is that you get to
know the people so well, you move beyond interviewing them and simply
call them up and have a conversation or agree to meet somewhere, have a
meal, and talk about whatever is going on. I was regularly invited to go
have a coffee or meal after a protest or halaqah session and talk not only
about the protest or halaqah, but about the same things one would talk to
anyone else about; kids, work, weather, education, world events, and so
on. The importance of establishing those kinds of relationships cannot be
overstated. Moreover, it is the only way to get beyond the sound bite
understandings mentioned previously and the superficiality of interviews
that most researchers rely on. Thus, the data for this book comes from
structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation at a wide
range of events and locations, and online participation, but more impor-
tantly, countless hours of general discussion.
One last area that warrants discussion is that of trust. Meaningful
engagement with a proscribed group like the ALM/ASWJ movement
requires a significant investment in time and the ability to overcome sev-
eral obstacles, not the least of which is their inherent suspicion of outsid-
ers. Moreover, the counter-terrorism environment is so politicized by all
parties involved, the ability to remain neutral, empathetic, and without a
pre-determined agenda required an ever-present reflexive process during
this research. In terrorism studies, there is a tendency to overlook the fact
that some grievances may be legitimate or forget that those being studied
are actually human beings with all the ambitions, emotions, and concerns
that the rest of us have. To that end, this study acknowledges the human
factor and when grievances were found to be legitimate, they were
documented.
28 D. WEEKS

This Book in Relation to Other Scholarly Works

Despite the focus that ALM/ASWJ has attracted in government and
media circles, there is limited scholarly work done on the group. Noted
contributions can be found by Wiktorowicz’s seminal book Radical Islam
Rising in 2005,104 Baxter’s 2007 book(let) British Muslims and the Call to
Global Jihad,105 Kenney’s 2018 book The Islamic State in Britain,106 and
Horgan’s chapter on OBM in his book Leaving Terrorism Behind,107 fol-
lowed by a small handful of reports, articles, and papers from Raymond,
Vidino, Kenney, and others.108
While those above have unquestionably added to the collective body of
knowledge, there remains room for a broader, more comprehensive, yet
nuanced understanding of ALM/ASWJ which this book provides. It also
confirms, updates, and in some cases corrects what others have found.
That is not said to be disrespectful of the other academic work on ALM/
ASWJ but rather to acknowledge some of the limitations, scope, and tim-
ing of previous contributions. For instance, Wiktorowicz’s book is a semi-
nal contribution, but it was written before ALM was proscribed.
Additionally, although Wiktorowicz used ethnographic methods to study
ALM, his actual contact with them was limited. His research also focused
on three areas of inquiry: why individuals are drawn to such groups; how
they are persuaded to adopt ALM’s interpretation of Islam; and how indi-
viduals are convinced to engage in activism.109
Baxter’s book focuses on Muslims in Britain, Islamist traditions in
Britain, and how ALM fits into that paradigm.110 It is much smaller than
the others and the extent of her engagement was quite limited. However,
she makes important observations about the group and its relationship
with government at the time.
Last, Kenney’s book is more current and assesses ALM/ASWJ in the
post-proscription period. It is based on seven trips to the UK over a 5 year
period where he used ethnographic methods to observe and interview
ALM/ASWJ activists and conduct interviews with HT activists, police
officers, Brixton Salafis, business people, government officials, think tank
personnel, and other academic researchers.111 Kenney’s research focused
on using social network analysis to understand the impacts that govern-
ment suppression has had on the group, and interviews to understand why
people joined the ALM/ASWJ movement, its communities of practice,
and why people left the movement.112
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 29

Where appropriate, this book calls on some of work by the scholars

listed above. Even after 9 years of ethnographic research and significantly
more engagement with the group than the others have had, one cannot
cover every possible aspect to explain the ALM/ASWJ movement.
Similarly, I have far more data than could be used in a single book. To that
end, choices had to be made. Thus, rather than engage in a narrowly
focused thematic analysis or exploit more limited themes, this book focuses
on the lived experience of the activists to tell the story of one group’s
activism in the UK. As such, it has a broader scope and traces the group’s
beliefs and activism over a longer period of time.

Chapter Outlines
As has been discussed, Chap. 1 introduces the ALM/ASWJ movement.
There is also discussion on where this book sits in relation to broader ter-
rorism studies, explains the ethnographic approach, establishes the theo-
retical perspectives that will be used to explain/understand the ALM/
ASWJ movement, and discusses the methods and opportunities that were
used to conduct this research. Chapter 1 also establishes what this book
seeks to answer, profiles some of the other scholarly work done on ALM/
ASWJ and provides a primer on understanding radicalization and extremism.
Chapter 2 is an introductory chapter to contemporary radicalism in the
UK. To understand ALM/ASWJ, one has to have some appreciation for
the environment and the other radical preachers that were in Britain at the
time. A basic profile of OBM, his upbringing, his life in Lebanon, his
activities in Saudi Arabia, why he came to the UK, what led to his exile,
and his current imprisonment in Lebanon are discussed. The bulk of this
chapter charts OBM’s rise to power in HT until his departure in 1996. It
discusses his activities, his relationship with HT leadership, and the rea-
sons for his departure. It also discusses how he learned to stay within the
law while simultaneously remaining highly controversial and offensive,
and why he embraced and cultivated that controversy.
Chapter 3 discusses the formation of ALM from its British incarnation
in 1996. It includes a profile of ALM activities and the reaction of govern-
ment. The discussion includes the influences that AQ was having on the
group and the increasing pressure that government was applying. Chapter
3 also outlines the organizational structure of ALM, the methods of
recruitment used, and the events that led to its disbandment in 2004.
30 D. WEEKS

Chapter 4 undertakes a detailed explanation of the ideology of ALM

and its iterations over time. This chapter charts the evolution of the
group’s Maturidiyyah/Ash’ariyyah ideology to its present day ASWJ ideol-
ogy and the reasons for that change. The discussion is developed largely
from the interviews with OBM and his published work. Importantly,
Chap. 4 describes how those beliefs manifest as practice.
Chapter 5 discusses the post-proscription period of ALM (2006–2014).
The actions by government are profiled as well as the changes the group
has had to make in order to avoid arrest and prosecution. Discussion is
provided on the fallout from the 7/7 attack, OBM’s departure for
Lebanon, The Danish cartoons, Muslims Against Crusades (MAC), the
Lee Rigby Murder, and Muslim Patrols. The effects of proscription on
group solidarity and recruitment are also included as well as a discussion
of key events such as the arrest of 22 of its followers in December 2011 at
the US Embassy in London, the arrest of several members following skir-
mishes on Edgeware Road in 2013, and OBM’s arrest in Lebanon.
Chapter 6 discusses the rise and influence of the IS on the group. The
discussion includes the impacts of the Adnani fatwah113 (legal opinion or
ruling) which called for Muslims around the world to engage in attacks on
their home soil, and the arrest of nine ALM/ASWJ followers. Included is
a snapshot of the Syrian war statistics and how some followers decided to
leave the UK and either live under the Khilafah or fight for the IS. There
is also discussion on how the UK Government chose to deal with its for-
eign fighter dilemma, profiles the trial, conviction, and release of Anjem
Choudary and Mizanur Rahman for supporting the IS, and the UK’s pos-
ture on the return of Briton’s currently held in Syria.
Chapter 7 compares the ideology of al Muhajiroun, AQ, and the
IS. The discussion is dedicated to understanding core Islamic beliefs so
that actions are also understood. The comparison begins by establishing
the Islamic beliefs shared by all three groups and is followed by the origi-
nal reasons that brought them into existence, the methodology they use
to attain their goals, and how those beliefs and practices lead to conflict
within the groups. The chapter ends with a discussion on the debates
ASWJ leaders and followers were having on whether hijra (immigration)
to the IS was appropriate.
Chapter 8 discusses the activities and threat potential of ALM. As a
starting point for this discussion, a critical review of Islamist Terrorism: The
British Connections, published in 2011 by the Henry Jackson Society,
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 31

Gateway to Terror published in 2013 by Hope not Hate, and Islamist

Terrorism: Analysis of Offences and Attacks in the UK (1998–2015), by
Henry Jackson Society is undertaken. Some of the specific criminal cases
are discussed and the motivations of the individuals involved highlight the
challenges the group faces when they are seen as not being radical enough.
The chapter concludes after discussing the ASWJ movement against the
established literature on how terrorist groups end.
Chapter 9 sums up the beliefs, actions, and activities of the ALM/
ASWJ movement. There is also a discussion on the changes that have
taken place since Wiktorowicz’s research, some of Baxter’s findings are
discussed, and some of the similarities and differences between the
Kenney’s work and my own are highlighted. Eight policy recommenda-
tions are offered as a means to better manage the group. Last, there is brief
discussion on the evolution of ‘traditional jihadists’ like ALM/ASWJ,
where rules, structure, actions, and beliefs are taught, to a more non-­
rules-­based kind of jihadism where there is far less discipline.

Conclusion
The core premise of the book is to explain the history, activities and beliefs
of the ALM/ASWJ movement, its relationship to government, and to
document the ‘irreducibility of the human experience’ though the day to
day lived experience of the individuals involved.114 In a Habermasian
sense, this book defines and explains two contentious overlapping spheres;
mainstream society and radical Islamic activism. There are no hypotheses
to test or theories to posit beyond its conclusions because that is not what
ethnography is about. That said, some will undoubtedly take issue with
the structure of the book because it challenges some of the conventional
understandings of radicalism, extremism, and Islamic activism. Others
may be critical simply because opinions vary widely in this environment.
Last, some may be critical simply because it does not fit their preferred
approach to research. To that end, I stand by my assessments.

Disclosures
This research was 100% self-funded. The author is a retired fire officer
from southern California who for 14 years served in a counter-terrorism
capacity interacting with other governments, those considered radicalized
extremists/terrorists, religious leaders, law, fire, and emergency medical
service providers, and the military. During the course of this research, he
32 D. WEEKS

had no affiliation with any governmental group, security, or law

­enforcement agency.
The ethical standards used in this research were approved by the
University of St. Andrews Ethics Committee.
I am not Muslim. My interest in the group is simply an academic one.
I regard the group as a radical, non-violent, religiously oriented Islamic
social movement which exists at the very fringe of British society.

Notes
1. Home Office, CONTEST: The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering
Terrorism, Countering International Terrorism (CONTEST 2018),
(London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 2006), 19.
2. Khilafah refers to an Islamic form of governance whereby the shariah is
implemented and various recognized governmental entities (courts, gov-
ernors, social provisions, etc.) exist under a functioning governing body
headed by a Caliph (Khalifah).
3. Home Office, CONTEST, 2018, 19.
4. The exploratory trips took place on 6 through 12 June, 27 June through
2 July, 19 through 20 July, and 28 November through 1 December,
2010. Contacts were made with the police and religious leaders.
5. Takbir is an invocation that elicits the response Allah hu Akbar (God is
greatest).
6. Field notes 06 May 2011.
7. Field notes 06 May 2011.
8. Fetterman, David M, “Ethnography,” In The SAGE Handbook of Applied
Social Research Methods, Leonard Bickman & Debra J. Rog (eds.), (Sage:
Thousand Oaks, CA, 2009), 18.
9. Gillan, Audrey and Duncan Campbell, “Many Faces of Bakri: Enemy of
West, Press Bogeyman, and Scholar,” The Guardian, London, 13 August
2005. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/aug/
13/terrorism.syria1. [Accessed 12 June 2017].
10. O’Neill, Sean, “Magnificent 19 Praised by Muslim Extremist,” The
Telegraph, London, 12 September 2003. Available at http://www.tele-
graph.co.uk/news/uknews/1441270/Magnificent-19-praised-by-
Muslim-extremists.html. [Accessed 12 June 2017].
11. Morgan, Tom, “Bin Laden Supporters Clash with EDL,” The Independent,
London, 6 June 2011. Available at http://www.independent.co.uk/
news/uk/home-news/bin-laden-supporters-clash-with-edl-2280160.
html. [Accessed 12 June 2017].
 1 RESEARCHING THE ACTIVISTS: UNDERSTANDING METHODS, DATA… 33

12. Khilafah refers to an Islamic form of governance whereby the shariah is

implemented and various recognized governmental entities (courts, gov-
ernors, social provisions, etc.) exist under a functioning governing body
headed by a Caliph (Khalifah).
13. Fiqh refers to Islamic jurisprudence derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah
of the Prophet Muhammad.
14. Home Office. Proscribed Terrorist Organizations. London: Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office, 2017. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/
publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations%2D%2D2.
[Accessed 19 March 2012].
15. Borum, “Radicalization into Violent Extremism 1,” 14.
16. Borum, “Radicalization into Violent Extremism 1,” 14.
17. See Crenshaw, “The Psychology of Terrorism”; Silke, Andrew, “Cheshire-­
cat logic: The recurring theme of terrorist abnormality in psychological
research” Psychology, Crime and Law Vol. 4 (1998); Hoffman, Inside
Terrorism; Borum, “Radicalization into Violent Extremism 1”; Schmid,
Alex P. Radicalisation, Deradicalisation, Counter-Radicalisation: A
Conceptual Discussion and Literature Review (The Hague: International
Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 2013).
18. Tajfel and Turner, “An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict.”
19. Gurr, Ted Robert, Why Men Rebel (New Jersey: Princeton University
Press, 1970).
20. Khosrokhavar, Farhad, Muslims in Prison: Challenge and Change in
Britain and France. (Hampshire: Palgrave, 2005).
21. Dollard, John, Leonard Doob, and Neal E. Miller. Frustration and
Aggression (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939).
22. Several individuals appear to have contributed to the original develop-
ment of SMT with origins dating back to the mid-­nineteenth century.
23. Borum, “Radicalization into Violent Extremism 1.”
24. See Borum, Psychology of Terrorism; Borum, “Radicalization into Violent
Extremism 1”; Victoroff, Jeff. “The Mind of the Terrorist. A Review and
Critique of Psychological Approaches,” Journal of Conflict Resolution Vol.
49, No. 1 (2005); COT Institute for Safety, Security, and Crisis
Management, Causal Factors of Radicalization (The Hague: COT, 2008);
Coolsaet, Rik (Ed.), Jihadi Terrorism and the Radicalisation Challenge:
European and American Experience, 2nd edition (Farnham: Ashgate,
2011); Schmid, Radicalisation, Deradicalisation, Counter-Radicalisation.
25. COT Institute for Safety, Security, and Crisis Management, Causal
Factors of Radicalization, 2008; Pisoiu, Daniela, “Coming to Believe
“Truths” About Islamist Radicalization in Europe,” Terrorism and
Political Violence Vol. 25, No. 2 (2013); Schmid, Radicalisation,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
[1130] Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon, s. v. Epiphany,
quoting Crombach, Hist. Trium Regum (1654), 752;
Galenius, de admir. Coloniae (1645), 661. The date of the
Ritual is not given, but the ceremony had disappeared by
1645.
[1131] ‘Admiscent autem natalitias cantiones, non sine
gestientis animi voluptate.’
[1132] Tractatus de precatione Dei, i. 302 ( † 1406-15), in F.
Palacký, Documenta Mag. Ioannis Hus vitam illustrantia
(1869), 722: ‘Quantam autem quamque manifestam
licentiam in ecclesia committant, larvas induentes—sicut
ipse quoque adolescens proh dolor larva fui—quis Pragae
describat? Namque clericum monstrosis vestibus indutum
facientes episcopum, imponunt asinae, facie ad caudam
conversa, in ecclesiam eum ad missam ducunt,
praeferentes lancem iusculi et cantharum vel amphoram
cerevisiae; atque dum haec praetendunt, ille cibum
potionemque in ecclesia capit. Vidi quoque eum aras
suffientem et pedem sursum tollentem audivique magna
voce clamantem: bú! Clerici autem magnas faces
cereorum loco ei praeferebant, singulas aras obeunti et
suffienti. Deinde vidi clericos cucullos pellicios aversa parte
induentes et in ecclesia tripudiantes. Spectatores autem
rident atque haec omnia religiosa et iusta esse putant;
opinantur enim, hos esse in eorum rubricis, id est institutis.
Praeclarum vero institutum: pravitas, foeditas!—Atque
quum tenera aetate et mente essem, ipse quoque talium
nugarum socius eram; sed ut primum dei auxilio adiutus
sacras literas intelligere coepi, statim hanc rubricam, id est
institutum huius insaniae, ex stultitia mea delevi. Ac
sanctae memoriae dominus Ioannes archiepiscopus, is
quidem excommunicationis poena proposita hanc licentiam
ludosque fieri vetuit, idque summo iure, &c.’
[1133] The quotation given above is a translation by J. Kvíčala
from the Bohemian of Huss. There seems to be a
confusion between the ‘bishop’ and his steed. It was
probably the latter who lifted up his leg and cried bú.
[1134] Grosseteste, Epistolae (ed. Luard, R. S.), 118 ‘vobis
mandamus in virtute obedientiae firmiter iniungentes,
quatenus festum stultorum cum sit vanitate plenum et
voluptatibus spurcum, Deo odibile et daemonibus amabile,
 ne de caetero in ecclesia Lincolniensi die venerandae
circumcisionis Domini nullatenus permittatis fieri.’
[1135] Ibid. op. cit. 161 ‘execrabilem etiam consuetudinem,
quae consuevit in quibusdam ecclesiis observari de
faciendo festo stultorum, speciali authoritate rescripti
apostolici penitus inhibemus; ne de domo orationis fiat
domus ludibrii, et acerbitas circumcisionis Domini Iesu
Christi iocis et voluptatibus subsannetur.’ The ‘rescript’ will
be Innocent III’s decretal of 1207, just republished in
Gregory IX’s Decretales of 1234; cf. p. 279.
[1136] Lincoln Statutes, ii. 247 ‘quia in eadem visitacione
nostra coram nobis a nonnullis fide dignis delatum extitit
quod vicarii et clerici ipsius ecclesiae in die Circumcisionis
Domini induti veste laicali per eorum strepitus truffas
garulaciones et ludos, quos festa stultorum communiter et
convenienter appellant, divinum officium multipliciter et
consuete impediunt, tenore presencium. Inhibemus ne ipsi
vicarii qui nunc sunt, vel erunt pro tempore, talibus uti de
caetero non praesumant nec idem vicarii seu quivis alii
ecclesiae ministri publicas potaciones aut insolencias alias
in ecclesia, quae domus oracionis existit, contra
honestatem eiusdem faciant quouismodo.’ Mr. Leach, in
Furnivall Miscellany, 222, notes ‘a sarcastic vicar has
written in the margin, “Harrow barrow. Here goes the Feast
of Fools (hic subducitur festum stultorum).”’
[1137] What was ly ffolcfeste of which Canon John Marchall
complained in Bishop Alnwick’s visitation of 1437 that he
was called upon to bear the expense? Cf. Lincoln Statutes,
ii. 388 ‘item dicit quod subtrahuntur ab ipso expensae per
eum factae pascendo ly ffolcfeste in ultimo Natali, quod
non erat in propria, nec in cursu, sed tamen rogatus fecit
cum promisso sibi facto de effusione expensarum et non
est sibi satisfactum.’
[1138] Statutes of Thos. abp. of York (1391) in Monasticon, vi.
1310 ‘in die etiam Circumcisionis Domini subdiaconis et
clericis de secunda forma de victualibus annis singulis,
secundum morem et consuetudinem ecclesiae ab antiquo
usitatos, debite ministrabit [praepositus], antiqua
consuetudine immo verius corruptela regis stultorum infra
ecclesiam et extra hactenus usitata sublata penitus et
extirpata.’
[1139] Inventory of St. Paul’s (1245) in Archaeologia, l. 472,
480 ‘Baculus stultorum est de ebore et sine cambuca, cum
pomello de ebore subtus indentatus ebore et
cornu: ... capa et mantella puerorum ad festum Innocentum
et Stultorum sunt xxviij debiles et contritae.’
[1140] Sarum Inventory of 1222 in W. H. R. Jones, Vetus
Registr. Sarisb. (R. S.), ii. 135 ‘Item baculi ii ad “Festum
Folorum.”’

[1141] No. 27 in the list given for ch. x. Father Christmas says
‘Here comes in “The Feast of Fools.”’
[1142] Cf. the further account of these post-Nativity feasts in
ch. xv.
[1143] The C. of Paris in 1212 (p. 279) forbids the Feast of
Fools in religious houses. But that in the Franciscan
convent at Antibes is the only actual instance I have come
across.
[1144] There were canonici presbiteri, diaconi, subdiaconi and
even pueri at Salisbury (W. H. Frere, Use of Sarum, i. 51).
[1145] On the nature and growth of vicars choral, cf. Cutts,
341; W. H. Frere, Use of Sarum, i. xvii; Lincoln Statutes,
passim; A. R. Maddison, Vicars Choral of Lincoln (1878);
H. E. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, xxix, cvii, clxx. Vicars
choral make their appearance in the eleventh century as
choir substitutes for non-resident canons. At Lincoln they
got benefactions from about 1190, and in the thirteenth
century formed a regularly organized communitas. The
vicarii were often at the same time capellani or chantry-
priests. On chantries see Cutts, 438.
[1146] The Lincoln vicars chose two Provosts yearly
(Maddison, op. cit.); the Wells vicars two Principals
(Reynolds, op. cit. clxxi).
[1147] Reynolds, op. cit., gives numerous and interesting
notices of chapter discipline from the Wells Liber Ruber.
[1148] In Leber, ix. 379, 407, is described a curious way of
raising funds for choir suppers, known at Auxerre and in
Auvergne, and not quite extinct in the eighteenth century. It
has a certain analogy to the Deposuit. From Christmas to
Epiphany the Psalm Memento was sung at Vespers, and
the anthem De fructu ventris inserted in it. When this began
 the ruler of the choir advanced and presented a bouquet to
some canon or bourgeois as a sign that the choir would
sup with him. This was called ‘annonce en forme
d’antienne,’ and the suppers defructus. The C. of Narbonne
(1551), c. 47, forbade ‘parochis ... ne ... ad
commessationes quas defructus appellant, ullo modo
parochianos suos admittant, nec permittant quempiam
canere ut dicunt: Memento, Domine, David sans truffe, &c.
Nec alia huiusmodi ridenda, quae in contemptum divini
officii ac in dedecus et probrum totius cleri et fiunt et
cantantur.’
[1149] When, however, Ducange says that the feast was not
called Subdiaconorum, because the sub-deacons held it,
but rather as being ‘ebriorum Clericorum seu Diaconorum:
id enim evincit vox Soudiacres, id est, ad litteram, Saturi
Diaconi, quasi Diacres Saouls,’ we must take it for a ‘sole
joke of Thucydides.’ I believe there is also a joke
somewhere in Liddell and Scott.
[1150] Cf. p. 60; Gautier, Les Tropaires, i. 186; and C. of
Treves in 1227 (J. F. Schannat, Conc. Germ. iii. 532)
‘praecipimus ut omnes Sacerdotes non permittant
trutannos et alios vagos scolares aut goliardos cantare
versus super Sanctus et Agnus Dei.’
[1151] The ‘abbot’ appears to have been sometimes charged
with choir discipline throughout the year, and at Vienne and
Viviers exists side by side with another dominus festi.
Similarly at St. Omer there was a ‘dean’ as well as a
‘bishop.’ The vicars of Lincoln and Wells also chose two
officers.
[1152] I suppose that ‘portetur in rost’ at Vienne means that the
victims were roasted like the fags in Tom Brown.
[1153] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae.
[1154] Gibbon-Bury, v. 201. The Byzantine authorities are
Genesius, iv. p. 49 B (Corp. Hist. Byz. xi. 2. 102);
Paphlagon (Migne, P. G. cv. 527); Theophanes
Continuatus, iv. 38 (Corp. Hist. Byz. xxii. 200); Symeon
Magister, p. 437 D (Corp. Hist. Byz. xxii. 661), on all of
whom see Bury, App. I to tom. cit.
[1155] C. of Constantinople (869-70), c. 16 (Mansi, xvi. 169, ex
versione Latina, abest in Graeca) ‘fuisse quosdam laicos,
 qui secundum diversam imperatoriam dignitatem
videbantur capillorum comam circumplexam involvere
atque reponere, et gradum quasi sacerdotalem per
quaedam inducia et vestimenta sacerdotalia sumere, et, ut
putabatur, episcopos constituere, superhumeralibus, id est,
palliis, circumamictos, et omnem aliam Pontificalem
indutos stolam, qui etiam proprium patriarcham
adscribentes eum qui in adinventionibus risum moventibus
praelatus et princeps erat, et insultabant et illudebant
quibusque divinis, modo quidem electiones, promotiones et
consecrationes, modo autem acute calumnias,
damnationes et depositiones episcoporum quasi ab
invicem et per invicem miserabiliter et praevaricatorie
agentes et patientes. Talis autem actio nec apud gentes a
saeculo unquam audita est.’
[1156] Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium, p. 639 B (ed.
Bekker, in Corp. Hist. Byz. xxiv. 2. 333), follows verbatim
the still unprinted eleventh-century John Scylitzes (Gibbon-
Bury, v. 508). Theophylactus was Patriarch from 933 to
956.
[1157] Theodorus Balsamon, In Can. lxii Conc. in Trullo (P. G.
cxxxvii. 727) Σημείωσαι τὸν παρόντα κανόνα, καὶ ζήτησον
διόρθωσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς γινομένοις παρὰ τῶν κληρικῶν εἰς τήν
ἑορτὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γεννήσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν
Φώτων [Luminarium, Candlemas] ὑπεναντίως τούτῳ· καὶ
μᾶλλον εἰς τὴν ἁγιωτάτην Μεγάλην ἐκκλησίαν ... ἀλλὰ καί
τινες κληρικοὶ κατά τινας ἑορτὰς πρὸς διάφορα
μετασχηματίζονται προσωπεῖα. καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ξιφήρεις ἐν τῷ
μεσονάω τῆς ἐκκλησίας μετὰ στρατιωτικῶν ἀμφίων
εἰσέρχονται, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ὡς μοναχοὶ προοδεύουσιν, ἢ καὶ
ὡς ζῶα τετράποδα. ἐρωτήσας οὖν ὅπως ταῦτα
παρεχωρήθησαν γίνεσθαι, οὐδέν τε ἕτερον ἤκουσα ἀλλ’ ἢ
ἐκ μακρᾶς συνθείας ταῦτα τελεῖσθαι. τοιαῦτά εἰσιν, ὡς ἐμοὶ
δοκεῖ, καὶ τὰ παρά τινων δομεστικευόντων ἐν κλήρῳ
γινόμενα, τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς δακτύλοις κατὰ ἡνιόχους
τυπτόντων, καὶ φύκη ταῖς γνάθοις δῆθεν περιτιθεμένων καὶ
ὑπορρινομένων ἔργα τινὰ γυναικεῖα, καὶ ἕτερα ἀπρεπῆ, ἵνα
πρὸς γελωτα τοὺς βλέποντας μετακινήσωσι. τὸ δὲ γελᾶν
τοὺς ἀγρότας ἐγχεομένους τοῦ οἴνου τοῖς πίθοις, ὡσεί τι
παρεπόμενον ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐστὶ τοῖς ληνοβατοισιν· εἰ μήτις
εἴπη τὴν σατανικὴν ταύτην ἐργασίαν καταργεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ
λέγειν τοὺς ἀγρότας συχνότερον ἐφ’ ἑκάστῳ μέτρῳ σχεδὸν
 τό, Κύριε ἐλέησον. τὰ μέντοι ποτὲ γινόμενα ἀπρεπῆ παρὰ
τῶν νοταρίων παιδοδιδασκάλων κατὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν
ἁγίων νοταρίων, μετὰ προσωπείων σκηνικῶν διερχομένων
τὴν ἀγοράν, πρὸ χρόνων τινῶν κατηργήθησαν, καθ’
ὁρισμὸν τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου ἐκείνου πατριάρχου κυρίου Λουκᾶ.
[1158] Belethus, c. 120, compares the ecclesiastical ball-play
at Easter to the libertas Decembrica. He is not speaking
here of the Feast of Fools.
[1159] e.g. Du Tilliot, 2.
[1160] S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages, 141, tilts at the
Protestant historian Robertson’s History of Charles V, as
do F. Clément, 159, and A. Walter, Das Eselsfest in
Caecilien-Kalender (1885), 75, at Dulaure, Hist. des
Environs de Paris, iii. 509, and other ‘Voltairiens.’
[1161] Chérest, 81.
[1162] J. Bujeaud, Chants et Chansons populaires des
Provinces de l’Ouest, i. 63. The ronde is known in Poitou,
Aunis, Angoumois. P. Tarbé, Romancero de Champagne
(2e partie), 257, gives a variant. Bujeaud, i. 61, gives
another ronde, the Testament de l’Âne, in which the ass
has fallen into a ditch, and amongst other legacies leaves
his tail to the curé for an aspersoir. This is known in Poitou,
Angoumois, Franche-Comté. He also says that he has
heard children of Poitou and Angoumois go through a
mock catechism, giving an ecclesiastical significance to
each part of the ass. The tail is the goupillon, and so forth.
Fournier-Verneuil, Paris, Tableau moral et philosophique
(1826), 522, with the Beauvais Officium in his mind, says
‘Voulez-vous qu’au lieu de dire, Ite, missa est, le prêtre se
mette à braire trois fois de toute sa force, et que le peuple
réponde en chœur, comme je l’ai vu faire en 1788, dans
l’église de Bellaigues, en Périgord?’
[1163] Cf. ch. xx. Gasté, 20, considers the Rouen Festum
Asinorum ‘l’origine de toutes les Fêtes de l’Âne qui se
célébraient dans d’autres diocèses’: but the Rouen MS. in
which it occurs is only of the fourteenth century, and the
Balaam episode does not occur at all in the more primitive
forms of the Prophetae, while the Sens Feast of Fools is
called the festa asinaria in the Officium of the early
thirteenth century.
[1164] Tille, D. W. 31. In Madrid an ass was led in procession
on Jan. 17, with anthems on the Balaam legend (Clément,
181).
[1165] Clément, 182; Didron, Annales archéologiques, xv. 384.
[1166] Dulaure, Hist. des Environs de Paris, iii. 509, quotes a
legend to the effect that the very ass ridden by Christ came
ultimately to Verona, died there, was buried in a wooden
effigy at Sta-Maria in Organo, and honoured by a yearly
procession. He guesses at this as the origin of the
Beauvais and other fêtes. Didron, Annales arch. xv. 377,
xvi. 33, found that nothing was known of this legend at
Verona, though such a statue group as is described above
apparently existed in the church named. Dulaure gives as
his authorities F. M. Misson, Nouveau Voyage d’ Italie
(1731), i. 164; Dict. de l’ Italie, i. 56. Misson’s visit to
Verona was in 1687, although the passage was not printed
in the first edition (1691) of his book. It is in the English
translation of 1714 (i. 198). His authority was a French
merchant (M. Montel) living in Verona, who had often seen
the procession. In Cenni intorno all’ origine e descrizione
della Festa che annualmente si celebra in Verona l’ ultimo
Venerdì del Carnovale, comunamente denominata
Gnoccolare (1818), 75, is a mention of the ‘asinello del
vecchio padre Sileno’ which served as a mount for the
‘Capo de’ Maccheroni.’ This is probably Misson’s
procession, but there is no mention of the legend in any of
the eighteenth-century accounts quoted in the pamphlet.
Rienzi was likened to an ‘Abbate Asinino’ (Gibbon, vii.
269).
[1167] Ducange, s. v. Festum Asinorum; cf. Leber, ix. 270;
Molanus, de Hist. SS. Imaginum et Picturarum (1594), iv.
18.
[1168] T. Naogeorgus (Kirchmeyer), The Popish Kingdom, iv.
443 (1553, transl. Barnabe Googe, 1570, in New
Shakspere Society edition of Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses,
i. 332); cf. Beehive of the Roman Church, 199. The earliest
notice is in Gerardus, Leben St. Ulrichs von Augsburg (ob.
973), c. 4. E. Bishop, in Dublin Review, cxxiii. 405, traces
the custom in a Prague fourteenth-century Missal and
sixteenth-century Breviary; also in the modern Greek
Church at Moscow where until recently the Czar held the
 bridle. But there is no ass, as he says, in the Palm Sunday
ceremony described in the Peregrinatio Silviae (Duchesne,
486).
[1169] A peeress of the realm lately stated that this custom
had been introduced in recent years into the Anglican
church. Denials were to hand, and an amazing conflict of
evidence resulted. Is there any proof that the Palmesel was
ever an English ceremony at all? The Hereford riding of
1706 (cf. Representations) was not in the church. Brand, i.
73, quotes A Dialogue: the Pilgremage of Pure Devotyon
(1551?), ‘Upon Palme Sondaye they play the foles sadely,
drawynge after them an Asse in a rope, when they be not
moche distante from the Woden Asse that they drawe.’
Clearly this, like Googe’s translation of Naogeorgus, is a
description of contemporary continental Papistry. W. Fulke,
The Text of the New Testament (ed. 1633), 76 (ad Marc. xi.
8) quotes a note of the Rheims translation to the effect that
in memory of the entry into Jerusalem is a procession on
Palm Sunday ‘with the blessed Sacrament reverently
carried as it were Christ upon the Asse,’ and comments,
‘But it is pretty sport, that you make the Priest that carrieth
the idoll, to supply the roome of the Asse on which Christ
did ride.... Thus you turn the holy mysterie of Christ’s riding
to Jerusalem to a May-game and Pageant-play.’ Fulke,
who lived 1538-89, is evidently unaware that there was an
ass, as well as the priest, in the procession, from which I
infer that the custom was not known in England. Not that
this consideration would weigh with the mediaevally-
minded curate, who is as a rule only too ready to make up
by the ceremonial inaccuracy of his mummeries for the
offence which they cause to his congregation.
[1170] Marquardt-Mommsen, vi. 191; Jevons, Plutarch’s
Romane Questions, 134; Fowler, 304, 322; Ovid, Fasti, ii.
531:

‘stultaque pars populi, quae sit sua curia, nescit;

sed facit extrema sacra relata die.’

[1171] Fowler, 306.

[1172] Schaff, iii. 131.
[1173] Belethus, c. 70 ‘Debent ergo vesperae Natalis primo
integre celebrari, ac postea conveniunt diaconi quasi in
tripudio, cantantque Magnificat cum antiphona de S.
Stephano, sed sacerdos recitat collectam. Nocturnos et
universum officium crastinum celebrant diaconi, quod
Stephanus fuerit diaconus, et ad lectiones concedunt
benedictiones, ita tamen, ut eius diei missam celebret
hebdomarius, hoc est ille cuius tum vices fuerint eam
exsequi. Sic eodem modo omne officium perficient
sacerdotes ipso die B. Ioannis, quod hic sacerdos fuerit, et
pueri in ipso festo Innocentium, quia innocentes pro Christo
occisi sunt, ... in festo itaque Innocentium penitus
subticentur cantica laetitiae, quoniam ii ad inferos
descenderunt.’ Cf. also c. 72, quoted on p. 275. Durandus,
Rat. Div. Off. (1284), vii. 42, De festis SS. Stephani, Ioannis
Evang. et Innocentium, gives a similar account. At Vespers
on Christmas Day, he says, the deacons ‘in tripudio
convenientes cantant antiphonam de sancto Stephano, et
sacerdos collectam. Nocturnos autem et officium in
crastinum celebrant et benedictiones super lectiones dant:
quod tamen facere non debent.’ So too for the priests and
boys on the following days.
[1174] Honorius Augustodunensis, Gemma Animae, iii. 12 (P.
L. clxxii. 646).
[1175] Ioannes Abrincensis (bishop of Rouen †1070), de Eccl.
Offic. (P. L. cxlvii. 41), with fairly full account of the ‘officia.’
[1176] Ekkehardus IV, de Casibus S. Galli, c. 14 (ed. G. Meyer
von Knonau, in Mittheilungen zur vaterländischen Gesch.
of the Hist. Verein in St. Gallen, N. F., v.; M. G. H.
Scriptores, ii. 84) ‘longum est dicere, quibus iocunditatibus
dies exegerit et noctes, maxime in processione infantum;
quibus poma in medio ecclesiae pavimento antesterni
iubens, cum nec unum parvissimorum moveri nec ad ea
adtendere vidisset, miratus est disciplinam.’ Ekkehart was
master of the song-school, and von Knonau mentions
some cantiones written by him and others for the feast, e.
g. one beginning ‘Salve lacteolo decoratum sanguine
festum.’ He has another story (c. 26) of how Solomon who
was abbot of the monastery, as well as bishop of
Constance, looking into the song-school on the ‘dies
scolarium,’ when the boys had a ‘ius ... ut hospites
 intrantes capiant, captos, usque dum se redimant, teneant,’
was duly made prisoner, and set on the master’s seat. ‘Si
in magistri solio sedeo,’ cried the witty bishop, ‘iure eius uti
habeo. Omnes exuimini.’ After his jest, he paid his footing
like a man. The ‘Schulabt’ of St. Gall is said to have
survived until the council of Trent.
[1177] Frere, Winch. Troper, 6, 8, 10. The deacons sang ‘Eia,
conlevitae in protomartyris Stephani natalicio ex persona
ipsius cum psalmista ouantes concinnamus’; the priests,
‘Hodie candidati sacerdotum chori centeni et milleni
coniubilent Christo dilectoque suo Iohanni’; the boys,
‘Psallite nunc Christo pueri, dicente propheta.’
[1178] Rock, iii. 2. 214; Clément, 118; Grenier, 353; Martene,
iii. 38. These writers add several references for the triduum
or one or other of its feasts to those here given: e. g.
Martene quotes on St. Stephen’s feast Ordinarium of
Langres, ‘finitis vesperis fiunt tripudia’; Ordinarium of
Limoges, ‘vadunt omnes ad capitulum, ubi Episcopus, sive
praesens, sive absens fuerit, dat eis potum ex tribus vinis’;
Ordinarium of Strasburg ( † 1364), ‘propinatur in refectorio,
sicut in vigilia nativitatis.’
[1179] Martene, iii. 38 ‘tria festa, quae sequuntur, fiunt cum
magna solemnitate et tripudio. Primum faciunt diaconi,
secundum presbiteri, tertium pueri.’
[1180] Grenier, 353 ‘si festa [S. Stephani] fiant, ut consuetum
est, a diaconis in cappis sericis ... fit statio in medio choro,
et ab ipsis regitur chorus ... et fiant festa sicut docent libri’;
and so for the two other feasts.
[1181] Martene, iii. 38 ‘cum in primis vesperis [in festo S.
Stephani] ad illum cantici Magnificat versiculum Deposuit
potentes perventum erat, cantor baculum locumque suum
diacono, qui pro eo chorum regeret, cedebat’; and so on
the other feasts.
[1182] Cf. p. 315.
[1183] Durr, 77. Here the sub-deacons shared in the deacons’
feast.
[1184] The Consuetudinarium of †1210 (Frere, Use of Sarum,
i. 124, 223) mentions the procession of deacons after
Vespers on Christmas day, but says nothing of the share of
 the priests and boys in those of the following days. The
Sarum Breviary gives all three (Fasc. i. cols. cxcv, ccxiii,
ccxxix), and has a note (col. clxxvi) ‘nunquam enim dicitur
Prosa ad Matutinas per totum annum, sed ad Vesperas, et
ad Processionem, excepto die sancti Stephani, cuius
servitium committitur voluntati Diaconorum; et excepto die
sancti Iohannis, cuius servitium committitur voluntati
Sacerdotum; et excepto die sanctorum Innocentium, cuius
servitium committitur voluntati Puerorum.’
[1185] York Missal, i. 20, 22, 23 (from fifteenth-century MS. D
used in the Minster) ‘In die S. Steph. ... finita processione,
si Dominica fuerit, ut in Processionali continetur, Diaconis
et Subdiaconis in choro ordinatim astantibus, unus
Diaconus, cui Praecentor imposuerit, incipiat Officium.... In
die S. Ioann. ... omnibus Personis et Presbyteris civitatis ex
antiqua consuetudine ad Ecclesiam Cathedralem
convenientibus, et omnibus ordinate ex utraque parte Chori
in Capis sericis astantibus, Praecentor incipiat Officium....
In die SS. Innoc. ... omnibus pueris in Capis, Praecentor
illorum incipiat.’ There are responds for the ‘turba
diaconorum,’ ‘presbyterorum’ or ‘puerorum.’
[1186] Lincoln Statutes, i. 290; ii. ccxxx, 552.
[1187] Gasquet, Old English Bible, 250.
[1188] Martene, iii. 40.
[1189] Ibid. iii. 39.
[1190] In his second decree of 1199 as to the feast of the
Circumcision at Paris (cf. p. 276), Bishop Eudes de Sully
says (P. L. ccxii. 73) ‘quoniam festivitas beati protomartyris
Stephani eiusdem fere subiacebat dissolutionis et
temeritatis incommodo, nec ita solemniter, sicut decebat et
martyris merita requirebant, in Ecclesia Parisiensi
consueverat celebrari, nos, qui eidem martyri sumus
specialiter debitores, quoniam in Ecclesia Bituricensi
patronum habuerimus, in cuius gremio ab ineunte aetate
fuimus nutriti; de voluntate et assensu dilectorum
nostrorum Hugonis decani et capituli Parisiensis,
festivitatem ipsam ad statum reducere regularem, eumque
magnis Ecclesiae solemnitatibus adnumerare decrevimus;
statuentes ut in ipso festo tantum celebritatis agatur,
quantum in ceteris festis annualibus fieri consuevit.’ Eudes
 de Sully made a donative to the canons and clerks present
at Matins on the feast, which his successor Petrus de
Nemore confirmed in 1208 (P. L. ccxii. 91). Dean Hugo
Clemens instigated a similar reform of St. John’s day (see
p. 276).
[1191] Martene, iii. 40; Grenier, 353, 412. The Ritual of Bishop
Nivelon, at the end of the twelfth century, orders St.
Stephen’s to be kept as a triple feast, ‘exclusa antiqua
consuetudine diaconorum et ludorum.’
[1192] Schannat, iv. 258 (1316) ‘illud, quod ... causa devotionis
ordinatum fuerat ... ut Sacerdotes singulis annis in
festivitate Beati Iohannis Evangelistae unum ex se eligant,
qui more episcopi illa die Missam gloriose celebret et
festive, nunc in ludibrium vertitur, et in ecclesia ludi fiunt
theatrales, et non solum in ecclesia introducuntur monstra
larvarum, verum etiam Presbyteri, Diaconi et Subdiaconi
insaniae suae ludibria exercere praesumunt, facientes
prandia sumptuosa, et cum tympanis et cymbalis ducentes
choreas per domos et plateas civitatis.’
[1193] At Rouen in 1445 the feast of St. John, held by the
capellani, was alone in question. The chapter ordered
(Gasté, 46) ‘ut faciant die festi sancti euangelistae Iohannis
servicium divinum bene et honeste, sine derisionibus et
fatuitatibus; et inhibitum fuit eisdem ne habeant vestes
difformes, insuper quod fiat mensa et ponantur boni
cantores, qui bene sciant cantare, omnibus derisionibus
cessantibus.’ But in 1446 the feast of St. Stephen needed
reforming, as well as that of St. John (A. Chéruel, Hist. de
Rouen sous la Domination anglaise, 206); and in 1451 all
three (Gasté, 47) ‘praefati Domini capitulantes ordinaverunt
quod in festis solemnitatis Nativitatis Domini nostri Ihesu
Christi proxime futuris, omnes indecencie et inhonestates
consuete fieri in dedecus ecclesie, tam per presbyteros
dyaconos quam pueros chori et basse forme, cessent
omnino, nec sit aliquis puer in habitu episcopi, sed fiat
servicium devote et honorifice prout in aliis festis similis
gradus.’
[1194] C. of Toledo (1473), c. 19 (Labbé, xiii. 1460) ‘Quia vero
quaedam tam in Metropolitains quam in Cathedralibus et
aliis Ecclesiis nostrae provinciae consuetudo inolevit ut
videlicet in festis Nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et
 sanctorum Stephani, Ioannis et Innocentium aliisque certis
diebus festivis, etiam in solemnitatibus Missarum novarum
dum divina aguntur, ludi theatrales, larvae, monstra,
spectacula, necnon quamplurima inhonesta et diversa
figmenta in Ecclesiis introducuntur ... huiusmodi larvas,
ludos, monstra, spectacula, figmenta et tumultuationes
fieri ... prohibemus.... Per hoc tam honestas
repraesentationes et devotas, quae populum ad
devotionem movent, tam in praefatis diebus quam in aliis
non intendimus prohibere’; C. of Lyons (1566 and 1577), c.
15 (Du Tilliot, 63) ‘Es jours de Fête des Innocens et autres,
l’on ne doit souffrir ès Églises jouer jeux, tragédies, farces,
&c.’; cf. the Cologne statutes (1662) quoted on p. 352.
[1195] H. E. Reynolds, Wells Cathedral, 75 ‘Quod non sint ludi
contra honestatem Ecclesiae Wellensis. Item a festo
Nativitatis Domini usque ad octavas Innocentium quod
Clerici Subdiaconi Diaconi Presbiteri etiam huius ecclesiae
vicarii ludos faciant theatrales in ecclesia Wellensi et
monstra larvarum introducentes, in ea insaniae suae
ludibria exercere praesumunt contra honestatem clericalem
et sacrorum prohibitionem canonum divinum officium
multipliciter impediendo; quod de cetero in ecclesia
Wellensi et sub pena canonica fieri prohibentes volumus
quod divinum officium in festo dictorum sanctorum
Innocentium sicuti in festis sanctorum consimilibus quiete
ac pacifice absque quocunque tumultu et ludibrio cum
devotione debita celebretur.’
[1196] Reynolds, op. cit. 87 ‘Prohibitio ludorum theatralium et
spectaculorum et ostentationum larvarum in Ecclesia. Item,
cum infra septimanam Pentecostes et etiam in aliis
festivitatibus fiant a laicis ludi theatrales in ecclesia
praedicta et non solum ad ludibriorum spectacula
introducantur in ea monstra larvarum, verum etiam in
sanctorum Innocentium et aliorum sanctorum festivitatibus
quae Natale Christi secuntur, Presbyteri Diaconi et
Subdiaconi dictae Wellensis ecclesiae vicissim insaniae
suae ludibria exercentes per gesticulationem
debacchationes obscenas divinum officium impediant in
conspectu populi, decus faciant clericale vilescere quem
potius illo tempore deberent praedicatione mulcere....’ The
statute goes on to threaten offenders with
excommunication.
[1197] F. C. Hingeston Randolph, Bishop Grandison’s
Register, Part iii, p. 1213; Inhibicio Episcopi de ludis
inhonestis. The bishop writes to all four bodies in identical
terms. He wishes them ‘Salutem, et morum clericalium
honestatem,’ and adds ‘Ad nostram, non sine gravi cordis
displicencia et stupore, pervenit noticiam quod, annis
praeteritis et quibusdam praecedentibus, in Sanctissimis
Dominice Nativitatis, ac Sanctorum Stephani, Iohannis,
Apostoli et Evangelistae, ac Innocencium Solempniis,
quando omnes Christi Fideles Divinis laudibus et Officiis
Ecclesiasticis devocius ac quiescius insistere tenentur,
aliqui praedicte Ecclesie nostre Ministri, cum pueris, nedum
Matutinis et Vesperis ac Horis aliis, set, quod magis
detestandum est, inter Missarum Sollempnia, ludos ineptos
et noxios, honestatique clericali indecentes, quia verius
Cultus Divini ludibria detestanda, infra Ecclesiam ipsam
inmiscendo committere, Divino timore postposito,
pernicioso quarundam Ecclesiarum exemplo, temere
praesumpserunt; Vestimenta et alia Ornamenta Ecclesie, in
non modicum eiusdem Ecclesie nostre et nostrum
dampnum et dedecus, vilium scilicet scenulentorumque (or
scev.) sparsione multipliciter deturpando. Ex quorum
gestis, seu risibus et cachinnis derisoriis, nedum populus,
more Catholico illis potissime temporibus ad Ecclesiam
conveniens, a debita devocione abstrahitur, set et in risum
incompositum ac oblectamenta illicita dissolvitur; Cultusque
Divinus irridetur et Officium perperam impeditur....’
[1198] On the Pastores cf. ch. xix. Gasté, 33, gives several
Rouen chapter acts from 1449 to 1457 requiring them to
officiate ‘cessantibus stultitiis et insolenciis.’ These orders
and those quoted on p. 341 above were prompted by the
Letter of the Paris theologians against the Feast of Fools
and similar revels. In 1445 (or 1449) a committee was
chosen ‘ad videndum et visitandum ordinationem ecclesiae
pro festis Nativitatis Domini et deliberationes Facultatis
Theologiae super hoc habitas et quod tollantur derisiones
in ipsis fieri solitas.’
[1199] At Sarum a Constitutio of Roger de Mortival in 1324
(Dayman and Jones, Sarum Statutes, 52) forbade drinking
when the antiphon ‘O Sapientia’ was sung after Compline
on Dec. 16. John of Avranches ( † 1070) allowed for the
feast of his ‘O’ at Rouen ‘unum galonem vini de cellario
 archiepiscopi,’ and the ‘vin de l’O’ was still given in 1377
(Gasté, 47). On these ‘Oes,’ sung by the great
functionaries of cathedrals and monasteries, see E. Green,
On the words ‘O Sapientia’ in the Kalendar (Archaeologia,
xlix. 219); Cynewulf, Christ (ed. A. S. Cook), xxxv.
Payments ‘cantoribus ad ludum suum’ or ‘ad’ or ‘ante
natale’ appear in Durham accounts; cf. Finchale Priory
ccccxxviii (Surtees Soc.,) and Durham Accounts, passim
(Surtees Soc.). I do not feel sure what feast is here referred
to.
[1200] Chérest, 49 sqq.
[1201] Ioannes Abrincensis, de Eccl. Offic. (P. L. cxlvii. 42)
‘Licet, ut in morte Domini, Te Deum et Gloria in excelsis et
Alleluia in aliquot ecclesiis, ex more antiquo, omittantur;
quia ut Christus occideretur tot parvuli occidi iubentur; et
illis occisis fit mors Christi secundum aestimationem
Herodis; tamen quia placuit modernis, placet et nobis ut
cantentur’; cf. the passage from Belethus quoted on p. 336;
also Honorius Augustodunensis, Gemma Animae, iii. 14 (P.
L. clxxii. 646), and Martene, iii. 40.
[1202] Ordinarium of Rouen (fourteenth century) in Ducange,
s.v. Kalendae; P. L. cxlvii. 155; Gasté, 35. On the Rouen
feast cf. also Gasté, 48.
[1203] These chants are taken from Revelation, xiv. 3 ‘nemo
poterat dicere canticum, nisi illa centum quadraginta
quatuor millia, qui empti sunt de terra. Hi sunt, qui cum
mulieribus non sunt coinquinati, virgines enim sunt. Hi
sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit.’ This passage is still
read in the ‘Epistle’ at Mass on Holy Innocents’ day. Cf. the
use of the same chants at Salisbury (Appendix M).
[1204] ‘Et tamdiu cantetur Deposuit potentes quod baculus
accipiatur ab eo qui accipere voluerit.’
[1205] Ordinarium of Bayeux (undated) in Gasté, 37. On the
Bayeux feast and its parvus episcopus or petit évêque cf.
F. Pluquet, Essai sur Bayeux, 274.
[1206] ‘Dum perventum fuerit ad illum: Deposuit potentes,
vadunt omnes ad medium ecclesiae et ibi qui in
processione stant ordinate eumdem versum, episcopo
inchoante, plures replicantes. Qui dum sic cantatur, offert
ipse episcopus sociis suis de choro baculum pastoralem.
 Post multas itaque resumptiones dicti versus, revertuntur in
chorum, Te Deum laudamus, si habent novum episcopum,
decantantes, et ita canendo deducunt eum ad altare, et
mitra sibi imposita et baculo cum capa serica, revertuntur
in chorum, illo qui fuerat episcopus explente officium
capellani, creato nihilominus novo cantore. Tunc chorus, si
non fuerit ibi novus episcopus, vel novus episcopus qui
baculum duxerit capiendum, cum suis sociis resumit a
capite psalmum Magnificat, et sic cantant vesperas usque
ad finem.’
[1207] Novus Ordinarius of Coutances (undated) in Gasté, 39.
[1208] ‘Post Matutinas conveniant omnes pueri ad suam
tabulam faciendam, quibus licitum est maiores personas
Ecclesiae minoribus officiis deputare. Diaconis et
subdiaconis ordinatis, thuribula imponantur et candelabra
maiora videlicet et minora. Episcopo vero, cantori et aliis
canonicis aquam, manutergium, missale, ignem et
campanam possunt imponere pro suae libito voluntatis.
Nihil tamen inhonestum aut impertinens apponatur;
antiquiores primi ponantur in tabula et ultimi iuniores.’
[1209] ‘Quo facto dicat [Episcopus] Deposuit. Statimque
electus Episcopus, tradito sibi baculo pastorali a pueris ad
altare praesentetur, et osculato altari in domum suam a
dictis pueris deferatur. Et interim, finito tumultu, eat
processio ad altare S. Thomae martyris.’
[1210] Rituale (fourteenth century) of Tours in Martene, iii. 39.
There was a cantor puerorum as well as the episcopus. At
second Vespers ‘quando Magnificat canitur, veniunt
clericuli in choro cum episcopo habentes candelas
accensas de proprio et quando Deposuit canitur, accipit
cantor puerorum baculum, et tunc in stallo ascendunt pueri,
et alii descendunt.’
[1211] Ducange, s. v. Kalendae.
[1212] ‘Omnes pueri et subdiaconi feriati, qui in numero
dictorum Innocentium computantur.’
[1213] ‘Ipsa autem die de mane equitare habet idem
episcopus Innocentium ad monasteria SS. Mansueti et Apri
per civitatem transeundo in comitiva suorum aequalium,
quibus etiam maiores et digniores personae dignitatum
comitantur per se vel suos servitores et equos, et
 descendentes ad fores ecclesiarum praedictarum intonat
unam antiphonam et dicit episcopus orationem, sibique
debentur a quolibet monasteriorum eorundem xviij den.
Tullenses, qui si illico non solvantur, possunt accipere
libros vel vadia.’
[1214] ‘Cantatis eiusdem diei vesperis, episcopus ipse cum
mimis et tubis procedit per civitatem cum sua comitiva, via
qua fiunt generales processiones.’
[1215] ‘In crastino Innocentium, quo omnes vadunt per
civitatem post prandium, faciebus opertis, in diversis
habitibus, et si quae farsae practicari valeant, tempore
tamen sicco, fiunt in aliquibus locis civitatis, omnia cum
honestate.’ Another passage, referring more generally to
the feast, has ‘Fiunt ibi moralitates vel simulacra
miraculorum cum farsis et similibus ioculis, semper tamen
honestis.’
[1216] ‘In octavis Innocentium rursus vadit episcopus cum
omni comitiva sua in habitibus suis ad ecclesiam B.
Genovefae, ubi cantata antiphona de ipsa virgine cum
collecta, itur ad domum parochialem eius ecclesiae vel
alibi, ubi magister et fratres domus Dei, quibus ipsa
ecclesia est unita, paraverint focapam unam, poma, nuces,
&c. ad merendam oportuna; et ibi instituuntur officiarii ad
marencias super defectibus aut excessibus in officio divino
per totum annum commissis.’
[1217] ‘Fit ... assignatio post coenam diei Innocentium; ita
quod is qui illa die festum peregit, gratias refert episcopo et
toti comitivae, ac excusari petit, si in aliquo defecit; et
finaliter pileum romarini vel alterius confectionis floreum
exhibet ipsi episcopo, ut tradat canonico in receptione
sequenti constituto ad futurum annum ipsum festum
agendum.’ Cf. the bouquets at the ‘defructus’ (p. 324).
[1218] ‘Si autem facere contemneret adveniente festo,
suspenderetur cappa nigra in raustro medio chori, et
tamdiu ibi maneret in illius vituperium, quamdiu placeret
subdiaconis feriatis et pueris chori; et in ea re non
tenerentur nobis capitulo obedire.’
[1219] Amiens: Rigollot, 13 and passim; cf. p. 339.
[1220] St. Quentin: Rigollot, 32; Grenier, 360.
[1221] Senlis: Rigollot, 26; Grenier, 360.
[1222] Soissons: Matton, Archives de Soissons, 75.
[1223] Roye: Rigollot, 33; Grenier, 359.
[1224] Peronne: Rigollot, 34; Grenier, 359, 413.
[1225] Rheims: Rigollot, 50; Petit de Julleville, Rép. Com. 348;
Marlot, Hist. de Rheims, ii. 266. In 1479 the chapter
undertook the expense, ‘modo fiat sine larvis et strepitu
tubicinis, ac sine equitatione per villam.’ Martene, iii. 40,
says that there is no trace of any of the triduum ceremonies
in the early thirteenth-century Rheims Ordinarium.
[1226] Brussels: Laborde, Ducs de Bourgogne, ii. 2. 286
‘[1378] Item xxi decembris episcopo scholarium sanctae
Gudilae profecto Sancti Nycolay quod scholares annuatim
faciunt 1¹⁄₂ mut[ones].’
[1227] Lille: E. Hautcœur, Hist. de Saint-Pierre de Lille, ii. 217,
223. On June 29, 1501, Guillemot de Lespine ‘trépassa
évêque des Innocens.’ His epitaph is in the cloister gallery
(Hautcœur, Doc. liturg. de S. P. de Lille, 342).
[1228] Liège: Rigollot, 42; Dürr, 82. A statute of 1330 laid the
expense on the last admitted canon ‘nisi canonicus
scholaris sub virga existens ipsum exemerit.’
[1229] Laon: Rigollot, 21; Grenier, 356, 413; C. Hidé, Bull. de
la Soc. acad. de Laon, xiii. 122; E. Fleury, Cinquante Ans
de Laon, 52. A chapter act of 1546 states that the custom
of playing a comedy at the election of the Boy Bishop on
St. Eloi’s day (Dec. 1) has ceased. The Mass is not to be
disturbed, but ‘si les escoliers veulent faire un petit
discours, il seroit entendu avec plaisir.’
[1230] Troyes: T. Boutiot, Hist. de Troyes, iii. 20.
[1231] Mans: Gasté, 43; Julleville, Les Com. 38.
[1232] Bourges: Martene, iii. 40.
[1233] Châlons-sur-Saône: Du Tilliot, 20; C. Perry, Hist. de
Châlons (1659), 435.
[1234] Grenoble: Pilot de Thorey, Usages, Fêtes et Coutumes
en Dauphiné, i. 181.
[1235] C. of Cognac (1260), c. 2 (Mansi, xxiii. 1033) ‘cum in
balleatione quae in festo SS. Innocentium in quibusdam
Ecclesiis fieri inolevit, multae rixae, contentiones et
turbationes, tam in divinis officiis quam aliis consueverint
provenire, praedictas balleationes ulterius sub intimatione
anathematis fieri prohibemus; nec non et Episcopos in
praedicto festo creari; cum hoc in ecclesia Dei ridiculum
existat, et hoc dignitatis episcopalis ludibrio fiat.’ C. of
Salzburg (1274), c. 17 (Labbé, xi. 1004) ‘ludi noxii quos
vulgaris elocutio Eptus puor. appellat’; CC. of Chartres
(1526 and 1575; Bochellus, Decr. Eccl. Gall. iv. 7. 46; Du
Tilliot, 66) ‘stultum aut ridiculum in ecclesia’ on days of SS.
Nicholas and Catharine, and the Innocents; C. of Toledo
(1565), ii. 21 (Labbé, xv. 764) ‘ficta illa et puerilis
episcopatus electio’; C. of Rouen (1581; Hardouin,
Concilia, x. 1217) ‘in festivitate SS. Innocentium theatralia.’
[1236] There are traces of it in the eighteenth century at Lyons
(Martene, iii. 40) and Rheims (Barthélemy, v. 334); at Sens,
in the nineteenth, the choir-boys still play at being bishops
on Innocents’ day, and name the ‘archbishop’ âne
(Chérest, 81).
[1237] Grenier, 358, quoting Le Vasseur, Epistolae, Cent. ii.
Epist. 68; cf. on the Noyon feast, Leach, 135; Du Tilliot, 17;
Rigollot, 27; L. Mazière, Noyon religieux, in Comptes-
Rendus et Mémoires, xi. 91, of The Comité arch. et hist. de
Noyon. Le Vasseur, an ex-Rector of the University of Paris,
writes to François Geuffrin ‘ecce ludunt etiam ante ipsas
aras; internecionem detestamur, execramur carnificem.
Ludunt et placet iste ludus ecclesiae.... Tam grandis est
natu ritus iste, quem viguisse deprehendo iam ante
quadringentos annos in hac aede, magno totius orbis
ordinum et aetatum plausu fructuque.... O miserum
saeculum! ... solo gestu externoque habitu spectabiles,
sola barba et pallio philosophi, caetera pecudes!’
[1238] Chronicon Montis Sereni in Pertz, Scriptores, xxiii. 144.
[1239] Monum. Boic. xiii. 214, quoted by Specht, 228 ‘in festo
nativitatis Dominicae annuatim sibi ludendo constituentes
episcopum.’
[1240] Vitus Arnpekius, Chron. Baioariorum, v. 53, cited by
Martene, iii. 40.
[1241] Specht, 228.
[1242] Ibid. 225; Creizenach, i. 391; both quoting E. Meyer,
Gesch. des hamburgischen Schul-und Unterrichtswesens
im Mittelalter, 197 ‘praeterea scholares nunquam, sive in
electione sive extra, aliquos rhythmos faciant, tam in latino,
quam in teutonico, qui famam alicuius valeant maculare.’ In
the thirteenth century a child-abbot was chosen in
Hamburg on St. Andrew’s day (Nov. 30). On St. Nicholas’
day (Dec. 6) he gave way to a child-bishop, who remained
in office until Dec. 28 (Tille, D. W. 31, citing Beneke,
Hamburgische Geschichte und Sagen, 90).
[1243] Specht, 229.
[1244] Ibid. 228.
[1245] Cf. p. 319.
[1246] Tille, D. W. 31.
[1247] Ibid. 299.
[1248] Dürr, 67, quoting a Ritual of the cathedral (‘tempore
Alberti’).
[1249] It began:

‘Iam tuum festum Nicolae dives

more solemni recolit iuventus,
nec tibi dignus, sacerdotum Caesar,
promere laudes.’

[1250] Tille, D. W. 31, citing Nork, Festkalender, 783. Dürr’s

tract was published at Mainz in 1755.
[1251] Wetzer und Welte, s. v. Feste ‘consuetudo seu potius
detestabilis corruptela, qua pueri a die S. Nicolai usque ad
festum SS. Innocentium personatum Episcopum
colunt ... ea puerilibus levitatibus et ineptiis plena coeperit
esse multumque gravitatis et decoris divinis detrahat
officiis ... ne clerus se pueris die SS. Inn. submittat ac
eorum locum occupet, aut illis functiones aliquas in divinis
officiis permittat, neque praesentes aliquis Episcopus
benedictiones faciat, aliique pueri in cantandis horariis
precibus lectionibus et collectis Sacerdotum, Diaconorum
aut Subdiaconorum officia quaedam usurpent; multo minus