Project for the Research of Islamist Movements

What is PRISM?

The Project for the Research of Islamist Movements - PRISM - was founded by Reuven Paz in 2002, in order to combine academic and field research of new developments of radical Islam and Islamist movements. The project is part of the GLORIA Center in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

The project is dealing with developments of radical Islamic and Islamist movements in the social, cultural, ideological, and political fields; Finance of radical Islamist groups; Sponsoring of Islamic states to Islamist radicalism and terrorism; Islamic communities in the West; The "Culture of Global Jihad" and its attitude toward the Western civilization, Israel, and the Jews; Islamist networks; and support for radical Islam through the virtual global Jihad in the Internet. The focus of its research is on primary sources in Arabic, and the project wishes to fill some vacuum in the use of Arabic sources for the Islamist phenomenon.

PRISM wishes to become a home and platform for scholars in these fields, to conduct research, publish their products, and organize conferences, seminars, and workshops on the above topics.