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Hiding out from U.S. drones in Yemen’s badlands in March 2010, al-Qaida’s most persuasive English-language recruiter donned a camo jacket and addressed American and European Muslims.

“Today, with the war between Muslims and the West escalating,” Anwar al-Awlaki said in the video, “you cannot count on the message of solidarity you may get from a civic group or a political party, or the word of support you hear from a kind neighbour or a nice co-worker. The West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens.”

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It was an audacious pitch. No matter what you may think, the American-born Awlaki told Western Muslims, sooner or later your governments and fellow citizens will come after you. So you must join our violent cause.

On Sept. 30, it will be five years since the CIA drone strike in Yemen that killed Awlaki, the first U.S. citizen executed without trial on orders of a president since the Civil War. But the Hellfire missile that ended his life promoted him to martyrdom in the eyes of his fans, and his influence has turned up in terrorism case after terrorism case. His videos, forecasting a West in which Muslims would increasingly be denigrated, marginalized and threatened with expulsion or worse, have been viewed by hundreds of thousands.