The rise of ISIS and its terrorist acts, such as the recent Paris and Brussels killings, illustrate how difficult it is to pin down the religious and other causes of terrorism.
Religion clearly plays a part in the ISIS rhetoric and its apparent aims. Some observers say that ISIS is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Popular belief, reinforced by some of the media, sees it as Muslim to the core.
But with Muslims from both the Sunni and Shi’a factions condemning ISIS as “un-Islamic”, something more is going on.
Analysts believe the rise of ISIS is a direct result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies, which many saw as an unjustified external intrusion that threatened Muslim societies. The invasion took hundreds of thousands of lives (many of them civilians), destroyed the delicate sectarian balance of the region and understandably created animosity towards the west among many Muslims. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein created a power vacuum, and the actions of the partisan Government set up after the invasion antagonised Sunni Iraqis. (See this summary for more details.)
This leads other observers to point out reasons to think the movement is more political than religious. Certainly assessments have shown that only a small percentage of terrorist attacks in Europe over the past seven years have been religiously motivated – the main causes were apparently nationalistic, being committed generally by separatist organisations.
It seems be true that the balance is shifting a little towards religiously motivated terrorism, at least from a western perspective. But it seems clear that treating the terrorist threat from ISIS as mainly religiously motivated, is likely to lead to less than optimal responses.