The world has witnessed a new ideological divide since the atrocities of 911. There are strong indications that Islam and the West are entangled in a clash of ideologies. Moreover, this divide has made religion a strong component in international relations and political analysis. This leads us to a striking question: Is this the final confrontation of ideas in the modern world? This divide has in many ways seen a rise in radical Islam on the African continent. More particularly, radical Islam is spreading at an alarming rate in Africa. The wave of jihad in Africa has been imported by al-Qaeda who has found it increasingly difficult to operate in the Middle East. Accordingly, al-Qaeda, has established its franchise and operational networks in Somalia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia. These networks have unleashed unholy terror, death and destruction across the continent. This has situated many parts of Africa to be bedridden with brutal conflict and perpetual chronic poverty. A striking question then is what generates Africa to be a fertile ground for extremist infiltration? The crescent of terror emanating from Boko Haram in West Africa over to the Sahel, the Maghreb to Hamas in Gaza to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the diverse al-Qaeda franchises in the Middle East and berthing in Somalia's al-Shabaab reveals that the quest for a global caliphate is being provoked and networked to radical Muslims on the Continent. ISIS has now acquired a franchise in Northeast Nigeria through the destructive group - Boko Haram. Will Africa be submerged with another deadly and destructive group? Will the franchising of ISIS spread across Africa? The intent and purpose of this book is that it explores these complexities and plots. Most of all, the book investigates 'how' and ëwhyí radical Islam finds a breeding ground in Africa. Subsequently, the study analyzes the solution to this impasse emanating across the continent.

Alison Pargeter delves into the causes, motivations, and diverse forms of Islamic extremism in Europe. Drawing on original research and interviews conducted with moderates and radicals from across the continent, she shows how the lexicon of the war on terror has succeeded in distorting the complexities and peculiarities of the movement.

The African Diaspora was a consequence of the enslavement in the interior of West Africa. This work examines the conditions of slavery facing Muslims and converts to Islam both in the central Sudan and in the broader diaspora of Africans. It considers the consequences of European colonization.

The first of two interrelated security threats is multifaceted inasmuch as it stems from a complex combination of religious, political, historical, cultural, social, and economic motivational factors caused by the growing predilection for carrying out mass casualty terrorist attacks inside the territories of ¿infidel¿ Western countries by clandestine operational cells that are inspired by, and sometimes linked to, various jihadist networks with a global agenda. The second threat is more narrowly technical: the widespread fabrication of increasingly sophisticated and destructive improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by those very same jihadist groups. These devices, if properly constructed, are capable of causing extensive human casualties and significant amounts of physical destruction within their respective blast radiuses. These dual intersecting threats within the recent European context are examined in an effort to assess what they might portend for the future, including within the U.S. homeland.

How can current and future leaders in government and the armed forces (and the citizens who elect and supporet them deal more effectively with Muslim proponents of the Qur'an regarding peace, terror and war? This book answers this question by presenting fresh, original, objective research.