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Abstract

The outrageousness of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington has focused political leaders, security services and media on a very peculiar form of violence which appeared in connection with the Muslim world. Beyond the Al Qaeda issue, that lost mot of its interest since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, this focus has very much masked the fact that terrorism and political violence in the Muslim and Arabic world are not only very active still, but also depend on policies and strategies both at the local and regional level, that do not reflect a clash of civilisations at all . Those who misunderstand that phenomenon are truly playing into Bin Laden’s hands, weakening the antiterrorist war and feeding the cycle of violence.

Alain Chouet, a former Head of Studies at the French Ministry of Defence, worked in many French Embassies and at the French Mission within the UNO in Geneva.