There is the school of thought that Muslims ought to be made to accept ‘Western values’ and apparently it is the failure of Muslim populations to accept or ‘integrate’ with this superior way of living that is the real root of all terrorism, which is far too easily associated as a product of the faith’s teachings.
Except it is not that simple. Islamist terrorism is not so much a profession of extreme faith as it is a mantra of extremist identity politics. While of course it is using Islam as the faith to justify its goals, understandings and ends, it is nonetheless the application of Islam as a political ideology.
Whilst such acts of sporadic violence have been influenced by particular dogmatic schools of the faith, such as Wahhabism and Salafism, the point of analysis for Islamist terrorism and its associated groups begins with a study of politics, economics and sociology, rather than theology, and the assumption that every believing Muslim will spontaneously be prone to such activities is misleading. As with any other human being, who Muslims are and what they do is a manifestation of the material circumstances in which they exist.
What then, causes radicalisation and leads individuals to commit such acts? The faith itself is not the problem, rather the feelings of resentment, alienation and disillusionment that play upon one’s comprehension of identity and create receptivity to such ideologies.