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The monitoring function could be especially useful if the equivalent of cult watch
organizations developed within Muslim communities.
 Develop more effective methodologies for communicating with and obtaining
cooperation and information from captured terrorists, members of extremist
organizations, or, most importantly, defectors from extremist/terrorist organizations.
I recognize that experienced interrogators of terrorists in law enforcement
organizations have much more experience with this particular population than do cult
experts, and that it would be presumptuous for the latter to tell the former how to
interrogate. However, dialogue between the two groups of experts could enhance the
effectiveness of each.
Until such dialogue begins to take place and cult experts and law enforcement professionals
better understand how their specialties relate to each other, I believe it is appropriate only
to call for further communication at this time.
Recommendation 14
Cult experts and law enforcement personnel concerned about terrorism and other
extremist groups should meet in special seminars and workshops to determine how
each may benefit from the other‘s expertise.
Research
This field is so under-researched, given its importance, that research is needed in all areas.
In addition to the need for more survey research, which was noted earlier, I believe that
research in the following areas is particularly important:
Recommendation 15
More psychological research, which is sensitive to individual differences, on the
pathway to violence must be conducted so that we can better understand what
factors govern whether or not an individual continues moving along that pathway.
Recommendation 16
Intensive research of defectors from and ―almost joiners‖ of extremist and terrorist
groups should be conducted with the collaboration of Muslim researchers, helping
professionals, and community organizations. Families of involved persons should also
be studied in depth.
Recommendation 17
Researchers should collaborate with cultic studies helping professionals, volunteer
leaders of cult watch organizations, and Muslim researchers, helping professionals,
and community leaders to develop information-collection protocols that will have
research and practical applications.
Conclusion
In this paper I have tried to identify areas in which experts in terrorism, cultic studies, and
Islam might find common ground on which to build action plans to counter Jihadism at the
individual, family, and community level. My suggestions are merely a starting place, not a
roadmap.
Others have looked at social-psychological aspects of Jihadist terrorism. A National Science
and Technology Council (NSTC) report (2005, April), for example, organizes its findings
around four questions: prediction, prevention, preparation, and recovery from attacks.
Prevention is the area in which cultic studies can most effectively contribute. Surprisingly,
however, this important report‘s prevention section addresses none of the issues discussed

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2006, Page 81
in or recommendations made by this paper. That is not to say that the report‘s
recommendations (e.g., developing bio-imaging markers, surveillance technologies, data
mining) are not useful. Ultimately, however, Jihadist terrorism is about the decisions that
certain individuals make to kill other individuals. These decisions are not predestined. They
have cultural, interpersonal, and psychological antecedents. Changing the antecedents of
violence can prevent it. The authorities responsible for homeland security and the struggle
against Jihadist terrorism do not appear to have appreciated this fact as much as they
should, perhaps because social and behavioral scientists are disinclined to use qualitative
methods, such as case study methodology (Dole, 1995), to study the complex problem of
Jihadist violence. Such methods have been essential to the cultic studies field. I hope that
this paper will stimulate dialogue between researchers, helpers, community leaders,
families, and affected individuals so that they can examine the problem of Jihadist violence
from fresh perspectives, including those of cultic studies experts.
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