Abstract
Since the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, it is generally accepted by many that the world confronts a ‘new’ and qualitatively distinct type of security challenge from an equally ‘new’ kind of terrorism. While earlier instances of political violence by non-state actors were geographically constrained, and generally directed towards unambiguous political objectives, the ‘new’ networks of terrorist violence function across a global dimension whose goals are more dispersed. An example of this is to be found in the London attacks on 7 July 2005. Public and political discourse throughout the West often describes the ‘new’ problems of global political violence partly in terms of ‘radicalisation’ process (es) among Muslim groups in different parts of the world. This article addresses the UK government response to the radicalisation phenomenon and shows how existing policies and measures have failed to gauge the complexity of the radicalisation process, and risk creating further community divisions.
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