Feelings of justification, belonging, integrity, and undying devotion could all be felt by members of a fraternity, church congregation, and a family. These feelings, too, could be felt (and arguably, to a much stronger degree) by members of militant New Religious Movement. A number of theories have been explored regarding why people join larger groups and the feelings that are evoked. I propose to write a thesis that would investigate socio-psychological questions surrounding the case of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Although not formally considered a terrorist organization, the MB preaches moderately violent courses of action against those who oppose aspects of their ideology and they have allied themselves to extreme thought, namely the denial of the Holocaust, reinstatement of dar al-Islam, and complete segregation of genders, as Shari’ah (Muslim Law) mandates.

Past psychological literature focuses on inherent aspects of “personality” which are responsible for people becoming members of NRMs, such as terrorist organizations. In addition, they focus on the negative aspects (i. e., deindividuation) of an individual submitting to a larger and more powerful group. Through the case study of the MB, “personality” orientations will be shared and discussed, more emphasis will be placed on a situational attribution, and the positive aspects of belonging to such an organization will be discussed.

For the development of my thesis, I will draw on the work of the following authors: Weber, Herriot, Juergensmeyer, Horgan, James, Stern, Zimbardo, Galanter, Festinger, Strozier, etc. Although a number of these works are relatively antiquated, they have had a strong influence on the literature that currently exists on the subject and have given a strong foundation to the social psychological study of NRM. Mainly, I intend to use journal articles which will be derived from social psychology.