Recent years have witnessed a rapid proliferation of radical Islamist
activity in western Europe, from MI5's claim in 2006 of 30 incipient
“terror plots” and 1,600 individuals under surveillance, to actual
terrorist atrocities in European cities, the most infamous and
deadly of which included the transport network bombings in Madrid in
2003 and in London in 2005. Concomitantly, both the media and the
wider social discourse have been rife with self-appointed punditry
and a plethora of commentators pontificating on European radical
Islam's putative causal factors and remedies. This paper will
attempt to address the complex issues by providing a fuller, more
nuanced understanding of some of the causes and antecedents of
Islamic political radicalism among western European Muslims.