Trends in the Manifestation of Terrorism Inspired by the Radical Islamic Discourse From Its Emergence to the Present Day

Abstract

This paper analyzes the most important trends in the manifestation of terrorism inspired by radical Islamic discourse since its appearance in the Middle East and North Africa in the 1980s until the present day. Considering the very specific historical context of this region, an insight into it was unavoidable, in an attempt to identify the key factors that favored the emergence of this type of terrorism, as well as its gradual affirmation in regional and international frameworks. The trends in the manifestation of terrorism inspired by radical Islamic discourse are viewed in this paper through two main time periods. The first covers the period from 1980. to 2000, when this type of terrorism began to appear in the countries of the MENA region, with gradual regional affirmation and expressed ambitions to extend the radius of activity of the newly formed radical Islamist organization to the international level. The second period commenced after the brutal terrorist attacks on American targets on September 11, 2001 and the declaration of war on terrorism, which, based on the indicators presented in this paper, inaugurated the era of progressive and extremely worrying rise of terrorism inspired by radical Islamic discourse, especially from the moment the entry of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) onto the international stage in mid-June 2014.