Emotional Motivations of Islamic Activism: Autobiographies and Personal Engagement in Political Action

The article examines autobiographies of persons who have belonged to different Islamic groups. The so-called cycle of engagement of an individual person – a "personal protest cycle" – to the Islamic activism is examined through the autobiographies. The main questions will be: how did one become an Islamic activist; how did the actual engagement occur; how did the activism evolve and how did the disengagement from the activism take place? Politics of emotions forms a general framework for understanding political activism and, more generally, protest or oppositional politics.