Homegrown tribalism: would-be al-Qaeda subway bombers and an ISIS defector

ABSTRACT 9/11 continues to influence a new generation of jihadists who were not even born or were very young children in 2001. The attack gave the al-Qaeda brand a lustre that would not be dimmed until the deaths of Osama Bin Laden and most recently Ayman Al Zawahiri. Drawing on interviews with three jihadists who acted in the name of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), this article demonstrates that post 9/11 terrorists do not observe al-Qaeda or ISIS mimicking tribal patterns, but—consciously or not— they adopt tribal motifs. The article highlights the ideological path that these jihadists took and examines their tribal system’s desire to be accepted—or seek some accommodation—with terrorist organizations that behave like tribes. Through an examination of these cases involving converts to radical Islam in the United States, this article seeks to shed light on tribal motifs which serve as a contemporary factor for radicalization.