Using France as a case study, contributors from around the world explore the factors that create violent extremists, including criminogenic needs, violence-supportive cognition, religious beliefs, identity uncertainty or fusion, the quest for significance, and social and political influences. They present a multidisciplinary and evidenced-based analysis of how and why violent extremism has reappeared as a contemporary issue and provide theoretical and practical approaches to responding to and, when possible, intervening, using deradicalization programs, deterrent and preventive legislations, prison segregation, and permanent monitoring.

How can the world's religions, which propagate peace and love, promote violence and the killing of innocent civilians through terrorist acts? This Element aims to provide insights into this puzzle by beginning with a brief overview of debates on terrorism, a discussion on religion and the various resources it provides groups engaging in terrorist acts, four arguments for what causes religious terrorism, brief examples of religious terrorism across faith traditions, and a synopsis of deradicalization programs. This discussion shows that, when combined with certain political and social circumstances, religions provide powerful resources for justifying and motivating terrorist acts against civilians.

In the wake of 9/11, policy analysts, journalists, and academics have tried to make sense of the rise of militant Islam, particularly its role as a motivating and legitimating force for violence against the United States. The general perception is that Islam is more violence-prone than other religions and that scripture and beliefs within the faith, such as the doctrines of jihad and martyrdom, demonstrate the inherently violent nature of Islam. Here, however, Heather S. Gregg draws comparisons across religious traditions to investigate common causes of religious violence. The author sets side by side examples of current and historic Islamic violence with similar acts by Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu adherents. Based on her findings, Gregg challenges the assumption that religious violence stems from a faith’s scriptures. Instead, Gregg argues that religious violence is the result of interpretations of a religion’s beliefs and scriptures. Interpretations calling for violence in the name of a faith are the product of individuals, but it is important to understand the conditions under which these violent interpretations of a religion occur. These conditions must be considered by identifying who is interpreting the religion and by what authority; the social, political, and economic circumstances surrounding these violent interpretations; and the believability of these interpretations by members of religious communities.

Using France as a case study, contributors from around the world explore the factors that create violent extremists, including criminogenic needs, violence-supportive cognition, religious beliefs, identity uncertainty or fusion, the quest for significance, and social and political influences. They present a multidisciplinary and evidenced-based analysis of how and why violent extremism has reappeared as a contemporary issue and provide theoretical and practical approaches to responding to and, when possible, intervening, using radicalization programs, deterrent and preventive legislations, prison segregation, and permanent monitoring.

The conflict in Iraq is characterized by three faces of war: interstate conflict, civil war, and insurgency. The Coalition’s invasion of Iraq in March 2003 began as an interstate war. No sooner had Saddam Hussein been successfully deposed, however, than U.S.-led forces faced a lethal insurgency. After Sunni al Qaeda in Iraq bombed the Shia al-Askari Shrine in 2006, the burgeoning conflict took on the additional element of civil war with sectarian violence between the Sunni and the Shia. The most effective strategies in a war as complicated as the three-level conflict in Iraq are intertwined and complementary, according to the editors of this volume. For example, the “surge” in U.S. troops in 2007 went beyond an increase in manpower; the mission had changed, giving priority to public security. This new direction also simultaneously addressed the insurgency as well as the civil war by forging new, trusting relationships between Americans and Iraqis and between Sunni and Shia. This book has broad implications for future decisions about war and peace in the twenty-first century.