The New Frontiers of Jihad

Radical Islam in Europe

Following the terrorist attacks on London and Madrid, radical Islam is presumed to be an increasingly potent force in Europe. Yet beneath the media hysteria, very little is actually known about it. What radical movements are there? How do they operate? What is driving them? Who are their recruits? What is their relationship, if any, to Al Qaeda?

Alison Pargeter has spent three years interviewing radical Islamists throughout Europe to find answers to these questions. She examines how radical ideology travels from East to West, and how the two contexts shape each other. She finds that contrary to what some analysts have claimed, the European Muslim community has not become radicalised en masse. What has happened is that in a globalised world, Middle Eastern power struggles are now being played out in the mosques of Birmingham, Paris and Milan. This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to know the real story of the jihad which has apparently arrived in our back yard.

'I read this book with great interest and consider it to be very good indeed, particularly in highlighting the complexity of the Islamist scene. Its great virtue is that it is based on extensive and detailed research, as the vast range of contacts, interviews and sources make clear. It is also written in an accessible style and has a sense of immediacy that most studies of this kind so conspicuously lack' - Professor George Joffe, King's College London