International Conference: Current Security Challenges for the Western Balkan Region Addressed by Means of Joint Responsibility and Cooperation host European countries than to their ancestral the 1990s. lands, of whose customs and language they are often ignorant. Therefore, while they are Between these two extremes is a whole concerned about the plight of the global umma, spectrum of realities, positioned according to they are equally if not more affected by events the level of autonomy of the group. The most that take place in their own backyard. Seeing the common model seems to be that of the July 7, world through the lenses of the most radical 2005, London bombers: a small group of young interpretations of Islam, they believe that Islam men, most of whom were born and raised in is under attack globally and that actions in Europe, who know each other either from the defense of it can take place with equal justication and effectiveness in the West or in mosque or from the neighborhood and become radicalized in Europe. 6 Some of these locally Muslim lands. groomed jihadist“wannabes” travel abroad to gain from various al Qaeda–afliated groups the Such an attitude has been perfectly summarized necessary bomb-making expertise that will by a 2004 report by the AIVD, Dutch domestic allow the group to jump from an amateurish intelligence agency, which warned that“within cluster of friends to a full-edged terrorist cell. the local networks in particular in the Western 21 world(especially in Europe) al Qaeda's ideology is interpreted in an even more extremist way Patterns vary from country to country. British authorities, for example, believe that there are than by the al Qaeda's leadership itself. Often the actors in the networks are not really driven by around 4,000 terrorist suspects and 200 jihadist networks spread throughout the country. 7 strategic tactical considerations; they see Countries like France or Spain report smaller yet themselves as participants in a mythical, extremely active jihadist scenes, while in apocalyptic nal battle with Evil(the Western countries like Greece or Portugal the world) in the context of which, in principle, all phenomenon is marginal. In some cases, there exponents of Evil(in fact any Western citizen) should be destroyed.” 5 are opposite trajectories. Dutch authorities, for example, claim to have recently witnessed, after a spike in 2004–2005, a signicant decrease in From an operational perspective, the current the level of jihadist activity on their territory. panorama of jihadist networks in Europe is an German authorities, on the other hand, have extremely diverse one and can be visualized as monitored over the last ve years a worrisome a continuum. At one extreme, we nd surge in the number of individuals who have homegrown groups: small clusters of mostly radicalized, obtained training in Pakistan, and European-born radicals with no ties to external been involved in terrorist activities. groups and that act with absolute operational independence. At the opposite end of the In substance, jihadist ideology affects a spectrum, we see compartmentalized cells statistically small percentage of European contained in a well-structured network and Muslims. Yet terrorism has always been a small subjected to a hierarchical structure, as was the numbers' game and the presence of a few model of jihadist groups operating in Europe in thousand individuals ready to use violence A 5 AIVD, From Dawa to Jihad: The Various Threats from Radical Islam to the Democratic Legal Order(The Hague: AIVD, 2004), p. 28. 6 House of Commons, Report of the Ofcial Account of the Bombings in London on 7th July 2005, May 11, 2006, pp. 13–21. 7 Kevin Sullivan“At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says,” Washington Post, 6 November 2007.