p style="text-align: left;">Islamic radicalism in Western Europe is generally associated with networks and cells affiliated with global jihadi organizations, such as al-Qaeda, whose ideology calls for the violent pursuit of a global Islamic political order. By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe.[1. numoffset="27" See, for example, “
The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other,” Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, June 22, 2006.] Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years. Dramatic and violent events perpetrated by jihadi cells, such as the Madrid bombings of 2004 and the attacks on the London transport system the following year, have fostered a growing fear of Islamic extremism among many Europeans and others in the West.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="185"]
![Muslim networks radical London 10-09-13 Muslim networks radical London 10-09-13](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2012/07/Radical-London-bombing.jpg)
Office workers at London’s Canary Wharf observe a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the July 7, 2005, bombings one week after the attacks. Credit: Rolf Soderlind/Reuters/Corbis[/caption]
But violent jihadi organizations represent only one segment of a broader ecology of Islamic radicalism that includes militants without direct operational ties to any group, as well as nonviolent radicals who disavow the use of force to affect political change, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir. While media and policy elites often lump these various strains of radicalism together, the political logic that drives the groups often varies significantly.
Radical Islamist movements also differ from broader currents of Islamist activism, such as that represented by the Muslim Brotherhood. While the movements share certain ideological roots, followers of the Islamism associated with the Muslim Brotherhood are, for the most part, committed to working within existing political and legal systems. Indeed, Islamists and jihadists increasingly find themselves at odds rather than working in consort. In fact, some Brotherhood-linked groups have worked with European security services to curb the influence of radical groups. In addition, several new Muslim organizations – including the Quilliam Foundation in London and British Muslims for Secular Democracy – have been established in recent years to try to counter the influence of radical groups.[2. See, for example, Robert Lambert, “Empowering Salafis and Islamists Against Al-Qaeda: A London Counterterrorism Case Study,” PS: Political Science & Politics, Volume 41, Number 1, pages 31-35, 2008.]
Arrival and Growth of Violent Radicalism in Europep style="text-align: left;">Islamic radicalism in Western Europe is generally associated with networks and cells affiliated with global jihadi organizations, such as al-Qaeda, whose ideology calls for the violent pursuit of a global Islamic political order. By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe.[1. numoffset="27" See, for example, “The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other,” Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, June 22, 2006.] Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years. Dramatic and violent events perpetrated by jihadi cells, such as the Madrid bombings of 2004 and the attacks on the London transport system the following year, have fostered a growing fear of Islamic extremism among many Europeans and others in the West.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="185"]
Office workers at London’s Canary Wharf observe a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the July 7, 2005, bombings one week after the attacks. Credit: Rolf Soderlind/Reuters/Corbis[/caption]
But violent jihadi organizations represent only one segment of a broader ecology of Islamic radicalism that includes militants without direct operational ties to any group, as well as nonviolent radicals who disavow the use of force to affect political change, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir. While media and policy elites often lump these various strains of radicalism together, the political logic that drives the groups often varies significantly.
Radical Islamist movements also differ from broader currents of Islamist activism, such as that represented by the Muslim Brotherhood. While the movements share certain ideological roots, followers of the Islamism associated with the Muslim Brotherhood are, for the most part, committed to working within existing political and legal systems. Indeed, Islamists and jihadists increasingly find themselves at odds rather than working in consort. In fact, some Brotherhood-linked groups have worked with European security services to curb the influence of radical groups. In addition, several new Muslim organizations – including the Quilliam Foundation in London and British Muslims for Secular Democracy – have been established in recent years to try to counter the influence of radical groups.[2. See, for example, Robert Lambert, “Empowering Salafis and Islamists Against Al-Qaeda: A London Counterterrorism Case Study,” PS: Political Science & Politics, Volume 41, Number 1, pages 31-35, 2008.]
Arrival and Growth of Violent Radicalism in Europe
The origins of Islamic radicalism in Western Europe can be traced to the 1970s and ’80s, when a number of Muslim dissidents, including some jihadi ideologues affiliated with violent offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, were forced to flee their home countries, such as Egypt and Syria, and arrived in Europe. Europe itself was not initially viewed as a battleground for these early jihadis, who tended to focus on struggles back home. During the 1990s, for example, militants from the Groupe Islamique Armé (Armed Islamic Group) in Algeria used France and Britain as staging grounds to organize and raise funds to continue their struggle against Algeria’s secular government.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="290"]
![Muslim networks radical Abu Hamza 10-09-13 Muslim networks radical Abu Hamza 10-09-13](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2012/07/Radical-Abu-Hamza.jpg)
Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri speaks at a rally organized by the radical Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun in London’s Trafalgar Square on Aug. 25, 2002. Credit: Reuters/CORBIS[/caption]
But the 1990s also witnessed the arrival in Europe of a number of radicals with a broader, more global agenda. Some of these ideologues — such as Syria’s Abu Mus’ab al-Suri and Jordan’s Abu Qatada — had close ties to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Both figures are considered major voices within global jihadi circles, having written some of the most influential theoretical treatises on global jihad and having worked directly with armed Islamist groups in North Africa and Afghanistan.
Another key figure is Abu Hamza al-Masri, a veteran of jihadi efforts in the Balkans and Afghanistan, who has lived in the United Kingdom since the late 1970s. Abu Hamza was the imam of the North London Central (“Finsbury Park”) Mosque during the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when it became widely regarded as a bastion of radical preaching. Since 2006, Abu Hamza has been in a British prison, convicted of multiple terrorism-related offenses.
While Europe had seen sparks of exported foreign conflicts during the 1990s – such as the 1995 Paris bombing linked to the Algerian Groupe Islamique Armé – it was the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001, and their connection to an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that brought wider attention to the question of whether Europe might be serving as a staging ground for global jihadi activities.
The Madrid train bombings of 2004 — perpetrated by a group of North Africans ideologically inspired by, although seemingly not operationally linked to, al-Qaeda — raised fears that Europe had become more than a haven for jihadist groups and was now one of their targets. These fears were significantly compounded the following year by the suicide bomb attacks on London’s transportation system planned and carried out by four second-generation British citizens, all but one of whom had been raised in the U.K.
With concerns about the radicalization of Muslim youth on the rise, European governments, starting in the mid-2000s, embarked on a range of strategies to counter this newly perceived threat. In the U.K., for example, significant funds were poured into a wide range of counter-radicalization efforts, such as the Preventing Violent Extremism program, which provides interfaith educational programs and funding for other initiatives aimed at building up the credibility of moderate interpretations of Islam in the eyes of Muslim youth.
Size and Makeup of Radical Groupsp style="text-align: left;">Islamic radicalism in Western Europe is generally associated with networks and cells affiliated with global jihadi organizations, such as al-Qaeda, whose ideology calls for the violent pursuit of a global Islamic political order. By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe.[1. numoffset="27" See, for example, “The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other,” Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, June 22, 2006.] Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years. Dramatic and violent events perpetrated by jihadi cells, such as the Madrid bombings of 2004 and the attacks on the London transport system the following year, have fostered a growing fear of Islamic extremism among many Europeans and others in the West.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="185"]
Office workers at London’s Canary Wharf observe a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the July 7, 2005, bombings one week after the attacks. Credit: Rolf Soderlind/Reuters/Corbis[/caption]
But violent jihadi organizations represent only one segment of a broader ecology of Islamic radicalism that includes militants without direct operational ties to any group, as well as nonviolent radicals who disavow the use of force to affect political change, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir. While media and policy elites often lump these various strains of radicalism together, the political logic that drives the groups often varies significantly.
Radical Islamist movements also differ from broader currents of Islamist activism, such as that represented by the Muslim Brotherhood. While the movements share certain ideological roots, followers of the Islamism associated with the Muslim Brotherhood are, for the most part, committed to working within existing political and legal systems. Indeed, Islamists and jihadists increasingly find themselves at odds rather than working in consort. In fact, some Brotherhood-linked groups have worked with European security services to curb the influence of radical groups. In addition, several new Muslim organizations – including the Quilliam Foundation in London and British Muslims for Secular Democracy – have been established in recent years to try to counter the influence of radical groups.[2. See, for example, Robert Lambert, “Empowering Salafis and Islamists Against Al-Qaeda: A London Counterterrorism Case Study,” PS: Political Science & Politics, Volume 41, Number 1, pages 31-35, 2008.]
Arrival and Growth of Violent Radicalism in Europe
The origins of Islamic radicalism in Western Europe can be traced to the 1970s and ’80s, when a number of Muslim dissidents, including some jihadi ideologues affiliated with violent offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, were forced to flee their home countries, such as Egypt and Syria, and arrived in Europe. Europe itself was not initially viewed as a battleground for these early jihadis, who tended to focus on struggles back home. During the 1990s, for example, militants from the Groupe Islamique Armé (Armed Islamic Group) in Algeria used France and Britain as staging grounds to organize and raise funds to continue their struggle against Algeria’s secular government.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="290"]
![Muslim networks radical Abu Hamza 10-09-13 Muslim networks radical Abu Hamza 10-09-13](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2012/07/Radical-Abu-Hamza.jpg)
Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri speaks at a rally organized by the radical Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun in London’s Trafalgar Square on Aug. 25, 2002. Credit: Reuters/CORBIS[/caption]
But the 1990s also witnessed the arrival in Europe of a number of radicals with a broader, more global agenda. Some of these ideologues — such as Syria’s Abu Mus’ab al-Suri and Jordan’s Abu Qatada — had close ties to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Both figures are considered major voices within global jihadi circles, having written some of the most influential theoretical treatises on global jihad and having worked directly with armed Islamist groups in North Africa and Afghanistan.
Another key figure is Abu Hamza al-Masri, a veteran of jihadi efforts in the Balkans and Afghanistan, who has lived in the United Kingdom since the late 1970s. Abu Hamza was the imam of the North London Central (“Finsbury Park”) Mosque during the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when it became widely regarded as a bastion of radical preaching. Since 2006, Abu Hamza has been in a British prison, convicted of multiple terrorism-related offenses.
While Europe had seen sparks of exported foreign conflicts during the 1990s – such as the 1995 Paris bombing linked to the Algerian Groupe Islamique Armé – it was the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001, and their connection to an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that brought wider attention to the question of whether Europe might be serving as a staging ground for global jihadi activities.
The Madrid train bombings of 2004 — perpetrated by a group of North Africans ideologically inspired by, although seemingly not operationally linked to, al-Qaeda — raised fears that Europe had become more than a haven for jihadist groups and was now one of their targets. These fears were significantly compounded the following year by the suicide bomb attacks on London’s transportation system planned and carried out by four second-generation British citizens, all but one of whom had been raised in the U.K.
With concerns about the radicalization of Muslim youth on the rise, European governments, starting in the mid-2000s, embarked on a range of strategies to counter this newly perceived threat. In the U.K., for example, significant funds were poured into a wide range of counter-radicalization efforts, such as the Preventing Violent Extremism program, which provides interfaith educational programs and funding for other initiatives aimed at building up the credibility of moderate interpretations of Islam in the eyes of Muslim youth.
Size and Makeup of Radical Groups
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="405"]
![Muslim networks radical Madrid 10-09-13 Muslim networks radical Madrid 10-09-13](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2012/07/Radical-Madrid-train-bombing.jpg)
Spanish railway workers and police examine the debris of a destroyed train at Madrid’s Atocha railway station after the March 2004 train bombings. Credit: Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press[/caption]
Reliable data on the size and influence of radical groups are difficult to come by. Some estimates have suggested that the number of radical Islamists active in jihadi cells or networks in Europe has never exceeded more than several hundred.[3. See Petter Nesser, “Jihad in Europe: A survey of the motivations for Sunni Islamist terrorism in post-millennium Europe,” Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, 2004.] One report estimated that there were 28 active jihadi networks in Europe from 2001-2006.[4. Edwin Bakker, “Jihadi Terrorists in Europe: Their characteristics and the circumstances in which they joined the jihad,” Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael), December 2006.]
Limited in scale, radicalization has also proven to be an idiosyncratic phenomenon. In some cases, the individuals involved – such as “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who in 2001 tried to set off a bomb on a commercial aircraft – have a history of social alienation and involvement with petty crime. In other cases, those involved in violent acts – such as London subway bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan – are highly educated and seemingly well-integrated individuals.
While direct organizational ties to global jihadists such as al-Qaeda have rarely been established in the case of European jihadists, it is clear that broad ideological affinities do exist between self-starter cells in the West and the militant Islamism of bin Laden and al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In some cases, European militants appear to have received organizational or material support from alleged al-Qaeda regional affiliates, such as North Africa’s “al-Qaeda in the Maghreb."[5. The Maghreb (literally “the place of the sunset” or “west”) is a term commonly used in Arabic to refer to the northernmost region of Africa containing the predominantly Arab and Muslim nations of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, along with the disputed territory of Western Sahara.] In other instances, however, militants appear to have found inspiration from other sources, such as jihadi websites. Recent years have also witnessed a number of European jihadis traveling from the continent to areas of conflict in the broader Muslim world, such as Iraq, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa.[6. See, for example, Craig S. Smith and Don van Natta, Jr., “Officials Fear Iraq’s Lure for Muslims in Europe,” The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2004, and Tristan McConnell, “British and American Fighters Respond to Jihad Call in Somalia,” The Times (of London), May 23, 2009.]
Snapshot: Radical Islamist Movements: Jihadi Networks and Hizb ut-Tahrirp style="text-align: left;">Islamic radicalism in Western Europe is generally associated with networks and cells affiliated with global jihadi organizations, such as al-Qaeda, whose ideology calls for the violent pursuit of a global Islamic political order. By most accounts, support for radical extremist groups is relatively low among Muslims in Europe.[1. numoffset="27" See, for example, “The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other,” Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, June 22, 2006.] Nevertheless, such groups have been central to the public discussion of Islam in Europe, especially in recent years. Dramatic and violent events perpetrated by jihadi cells, such as the Madrid bombings of 2004 and the attacks on the London transport system the following year, have fostered a growing fear of Islamic extremism among many Europeans and others in the West.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="185"]
Office workers at London’s Canary Wharf observe a two-minute silence in memory of the victims of the July 7, 2005, bombings one week after the attacks. Credit: Rolf Soderlind/Reuters/Corbis[/caption]
But violent jihadi organizations represent only one segment of a broader ecology of Islamic radicalism that includes militants without direct operational ties to any group, as well as nonviolent radicals who disavow the use of force to affect political change, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir. While media and policy elites often lump these various strains of radicalism together, the political logic that drives the groups often varies significantly.
Radical Islamist movements also differ from broader currents of Islamist activism, such as that represented by the Muslim Brotherhood. While the movements share certain ideological roots, followers of the Islamism associated with the Muslim Brotherhood are, for the most part, committed to working within existing political and legal systems. Indeed, Islamists and jihadists increasingly find themselves at odds rather than working in consort. In fact, some Brotherhood-linked groups have worked with European security services to curb the influence of radical groups. In addition, several new Muslim organizations – including the Quilliam Foundation in London and British Muslims for Secular Democracy – have been established in recent years to try to counter the influence of radical groups.[2. See, for example, Robert Lambert, “Empowering Salafis and Islamists Against Al-Qaeda: A London Counterterrorism Case Study,” PS: Political Science & Politics, Volume 41, Number 1, pages 31-35, 2008.]
Arrival and Growth of Violent Radicalism in Europe
The origins of Islamic radicalism in Western Europe can be traced to the 1970s and ’80s, when a number of Muslim dissidents, including some jihadi ideologues affiliated with violent offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood, were forced to flee their home countries, such as Egypt and Syria, and arrived in Europe. Europe itself was not initially viewed as a battleground for these early jihadis, who tended to focus on struggles back home. During the 1990s, for example, militants from the Groupe Islamique Armé (Armed Islamic Group) in Algeria used France and Britain as staging grounds to organize and raise funds to continue their struggle against Algeria’s secular government.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="290"]
![Muslim networks radical Abu Hamza 10-09-13 Muslim networks radical Abu Hamza 10-09-13](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2012/07/Radical-Abu-Hamza.jpg)
Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri speaks at a rally organized by the radical Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun in London’s Trafalgar Square on Aug. 25, 2002. Credit: Reuters/CORBIS[/caption]
But the 1990s also witnessed the arrival in Europe of a number of radicals with a broader, more global agenda. Some of these ideologues — such as Syria’s Abu Mus’ab al-Suri and Jordan’s Abu Qatada — had close ties to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Both figures are considered major voices within global jihadi circles, having written some of the most influential theoretical treatises on global jihad and having worked directly with armed Islamist groups in North Africa and Afghanistan.
Another key figure is Abu Hamza al-Masri, a veteran of jihadi efforts in the Balkans and Afghanistan, who has lived in the United Kingdom since the late 1970s. Abu Hamza was the imam of the North London Central (“Finsbury Park”) Mosque during the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when it became widely regarded as a bastion of radical preaching. Since 2006, Abu Hamza has been in a British prison, convicted of multiple terrorism-related offenses.
While Europe had seen sparks of exported foreign conflicts during the 1990s – such as the 1995 Paris bombing linked to the Algerian Groupe Islamique Armé – it was the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001, and their connection to an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that brought wider attention to the question of whether Europe might be serving as a staging ground for global jihadi activities.
The Madrid train bombings of 2004 — perpetrated by a group of North Africans ideologically inspired by, although seemingly not operationally linked to, al-Qaeda — raised fears that Europe had become more than a haven for jihadist groups and was now one of their targets. These fears were significantly compounded the following year by the suicide bomb attacks on London’s transportation system planned and carried out by four second-generation British citizens, all but one of whom had been raised in the U.K.
With concerns about the radicalization of Muslim youth on the rise, European governments, starting in the mid-2000s, embarked on a range of strategies to counter this newly perceived threat. In the U.K., for example, significant funds were poured into a wide range of counter-radicalization efforts, such as the Preventing Violent Extremism program, which provides interfaith educational programs and funding for other initiatives aimed at building up the credibility of moderate interpretations of Islam in the eyes of Muslim youth.
Size and Makeup of Radical Groups
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="405"]
![Muslim networks radical Madrid 10-09-13 Muslim networks radical Madrid 10-09-13](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2012/07/Radical-Madrid-train-bombing.jpg)
Spanish railway workers and police examine the debris of a destroyed train at Madrid’s Atocha railway station after the March 2004 train bombings. Credit: Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press[/caption]
Reliable data on the size and influence of radical groups are difficult to come by. Some estimates have suggested that the number of radical Islamists active in jihadi cells or networks in Europe has never exceeded more than several hundred.[3. See Petter Nesser, “Jihad in Europe: A survey of the motivations for Sunni Islamist terrorism in post-millennium Europe,” Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, 2004.] One report estimated that there were 28 active jihadi networks in Europe from 2001-2006.[4. Edwin Bakker, “Jihadi Terrorists in Europe: Their characteristics and the circumstances in which they joined the jihad,” Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael), December 2006.]
Limited in scale, radicalization has also proven to be an idiosyncratic phenomenon. In some cases, the individuals involved – such as “shoe bomber” Richard Reid, who in 2001 tried to set off a bomb on a commercial aircraft – have a history of social alienation and involvement with petty crime. In other cases, those involved in violent acts – such as London subway bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan – are highly educated and seemingly well-integrated individuals.
While direct organizational ties to global jihadists such as al-Qaeda have rarely been established in the case of European jihadists, it is clear that broad ideological affinities do exist between self-starter cells in the West and the militant Islamism of bin Laden and al-Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. In some cases, European militants appear to have received organizational or material support from alleged al-Qaeda regional affiliates, such as North Africa’s “al-Qaeda in the Maghreb."[5. The Maghreb (literally “the place of the sunset” or “west”) is a term commonly used in Arabic to refer to the northernmost region of Africa containing the predominantly Arab and Muslim nations of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, along with the disputed territory of Western Sahara.] In other instances, however, militants appear to have found inspiration from other sources, such as jihadi websites. Recent years have also witnessed a number of European jihadis traveling from the continent to areas of conflict in the broader Muslim world, such as Iraq, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa.[6. See, for example, Craig S. Smith and Don van Natta, Jr., “Officials Fear Iraq’s Lure for Muslims in Europe,” The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2004, and Tristan McConnell, “British and American Fighters Respond to Jihad Call in Somalia,” The Times (of London), May 23, 2009.]
Snapshot: Radical Islamist Movements: Jihadi Networks and Hizb ut-Tahrir
Origin
Have used Europe for sanctuary and fundraising since the 1970s but began concerted
organizing and recruiting efforts on the continent in the 1990s.
Stated Purpose/Goals
To replace democracy and the nation-state, whose legitimacy they reject, with legal and political systems based on Islamic teachings.
Method/Activities
Networks and cells affiliated with global jihadi groups, such as al-Qaeda, as well as individual
militants without direct operational ties to any group, pursue an agenda that calls for the violent pursuit of a global Islamic political order. Nonviolent radical groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir (“Party of Liberation”) seek to establish Islamic rule through political means.
Representative Organizations/Key Figures
- Radical leaders and ideologues who have spent extended periods of time in Europe include Abu Qatada of Jordan and Abu Mus’ab al-Suri of Syria, both of whom have ties to al-Qaeda.
- Abu Hamza al-Masri, formerly an imam at the North London Central (“Finsbury Park”)
Mosque, has been imprisoned in Britain since 2006 for terrorism-related offenses.
The Hizb ut-Tahrir Movement