Countering Global Terrorism and Exposing the Islamist Ideology.

Terrorism and its underlying Islamist ideology pose a civilizational challenge to the West and Europe in particular. Beyond the immediate security threat of mass casualty attacks, the worldview inspiring terrorism constitutes also a major obstacle to the integration of immigrant communities.

A successful counter-terrorism strategy is therefore not only a matter of improving police and intelligence work, as important as those tasks are, but also requires an effective counter-radicalization strategy.

To defeat terrorism and its underlying worldview we can’t though focus only on violent extremism but must also tackle those groups that may officially reject violence and yet still propagate goals and values that are incompatible with our liberal democracies. It is their views and ideas that lead to the creation of parallel societies, thus undermining social cohesion, and prepare the ideological groundwork for the jihadis.