Origins of global terrorism: a proposed analysis

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the distant causes of terrorism coming from Islamic countries. The origins of current global terrorism are well anchored in the war that took place in Afghanistan against the former Soviet Union. The handling of the post-war period by the various political actors involved in the conflict, contributed to the consolidation of the jihad, which spread taking advantage of the political vacuum and the neglect of Afghanistan after the war ended. On the other hand, the repression of moderate Islam in Arab countries triggered a process of radicalization that fed itself in a violent discourse that came to replace the traditional stance of political Islam. The handling of the religious realm by the regimes of Arab and Islamic countries did not bring any solution to the problem of radicalism, since the official Ulamas were not in a position to counteract the advance of extremism, nor to replace important political actors such as the Islamists whose discourse currently needs an in-depth reform.