As the former jihadi David Vallat has written, the radical preachers’ rhetoric could basically be summarised as: “Your father’s Islam is what the colonisers left behind, the Islam of those who bow down and obey. The rhetoric of rupture is violent – the enemy is kafir, one with whom no compromise is possible – but also includes their own family, the members of which are accused of observing Islam improperly, or refusing to convert. One group of Portuguese converts, most of whom were originally Angolan, left London to join Isis after bonding at a Thai boxing club started by a British NGO. One of the best-known radicalised figures is a German rapper, Denis Cuspert – first known as Deso Dogg, then as Abu Talha al-Almani – who went to fight in Syria. None of them belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, none of them had worked with a Muslim charity, none of them had taken part in proselytising activities, none of them were members of a Palestinian solidarity movement, and lastly, none of them, to my knowledge, took part in the rioting in French suburbs in 2005. They were not first radicalised by a religious movement before turning to terrorism.

The only exceptions are in Britain, which has a network of militant mosques frequented by members of al-Muhajiroun, which gave rise to an even more radical group, Sharia4UK, led by Anjem Choudary. Explore the links on the next page to learn even more about human civilization. The Human Rights Council, the General Assembly, and the Security Council have all engaged recently on issues related to violence based on religion or belief, as summarized below. Only love of Allah Almighty and his creatures is the remedy of all kind of spiritual, worldly and metaphysical problems of human beings. Allah’ is the Arabic name for God, which is used by Arab Muslims and Christians alike. Another characteristic that all western countries have in common is that radicals are almost all “born-again” Muslims who, after living a highly secular life – frequenting clubs, drinking alcohol, involvement in petty crime – suddenly renew their religious observance, either individually or in the context of a small group. Khaled Kelkal, France’s first homegrown terrorist, and the Kouachi brothers (Charlie Hebdo, Paris, 2015) share a number of common features: second generation; fairly well integrated at first; period of petty crime; radicalisation in prison; attack and death – weapons in hand – in a standoff with the police.

Another common feature is the radicals’ distance from their immediate circle. A similar figure is found in Germany and the United States – including a surprising number of arrests for drunk driving. There is no need to embark on painstaking fieldwork to figure out terrorist trajectories. I’d seen the meme before, but this time, her big smile and kindred spirit called out to me and prompted me to search online. The Abdeslam brothers ran a Brussels bar and went out to nightclubs in the months preceding the Bataclan shooting. Radicals are in fact often orphans – as the Kouachi brothers were – or come from dysfunctional families. David Hume (1711-1776) accepted Berkeley’s empiricism, which claimed that our ideas are of particular things and not universal things; but Hume’s empiricism led him to skeptical conclusions. All the data and profiles are available. The first conclusion that can be drawn is that the profiles have hardly changed over the past 20 years. We certainly have more information on the lives of terrorists operating in Europe than we do on jihadis who leave for foreign countries and never return.

Combat sport clubs are more important than mosques in jihadi social life. Each community has a vocation director, who can answer any questions about religious life there. Religious fervour arises outside community structures, belatedly, fairly suddenly, and not long before terrorists move into action. The decision to select Amin as running mate was a great strategic move because it was suddenly impossible for Widodo’s political enemies to label him ‘anti-Islam’ or ‘enemy of Islam’. The number of sets of siblings found is also remarkable. This over-representation of siblings does not occur in any other context of radicalisation, whether on the extreme left or Islamist groups. But, as a Sciences Po study on French jihadis who died in Syria has shown, there are many similarities between these groups. In France, they often switch to a Salafised version of French banlieue speech when they reconvert. Using this information, I have compiled a database of roughly 100 people who have been involved in terrorism in France, or have left France or Belgium to take part in global jihad in the past 20 years. We also have all the biographical information that has been gathered by journalists.