Religion and politics : investigating the relationship between the Islamist social movement and the Muslim intra-religious convert

News headlines link the religion of Islam to acts of violence every day, interchangeably using terms like "radical," "Islamo-fascist," "militant," "terrorist," "wahabbist," "jihadist," "Islamist," "Muslim-extremist," and "al-Qaeda member" to describe the anti-"moderate" Muslim. In an effort to contribute to the literature supporting the idea that political ideology is the focus of radical Islam, or ‘Islamism,’ rather than the religion of Islam, this study seeks to explore whether recent converts to Islam in the West are attracted to the social movement based on Islamism.