Acts of violence by extremist groups and the resultant state responses (both national and international) have added fresh uncertainties to an already complex global order and heightened a widely felt sense of insecurity in the West and the Muslim world. Just as terrorism and counter-terrorism are locked in a mutually re-enforcing symbiosis, the sense of insecurity felt by Muslims (in both Muslim majority and minority states) and non-Muslims is mutually dependent and has the potential to escalate. The pervasive sense of being under attack by the United States and its Western allies, has contributed to a growing unease among Muslims and re-enforced deep-seated mistrust of the ‘West’. The subsequent policies that have emerged in this context of fear and mutual distrust have contributed to xenophobia and a vicious cycle of insecurity. ‘Islam and Political Violence’ seeks to redress the current debate on the uneasy and potentially mutually destructive relationship between the Muslim world and the West. It explores the modern concept of Islamism and the re-invention of Islam by political elites and counter-elites to advance temporal objectives. This book provides us with a new angle from which to examine the range of challenges to social cohesion and multiculturalism in Western societies and the future of Islam in the West.