Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
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197402ZU34
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Vol.39 N° 71
2021
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Vol. 39, Nº 71 (2021), 44-61
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Racial and Religious Determinants of
Terrorism in Western Europe
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3971.02
Kostyantyn B. Marysyuk *
Mykhailo V. Huzela **
Nataliia D. Slotvinska ***
Ivo Svoboda ****
Igor G. Kudrya *****
Abstract
The gradual rapprochement between peoples, cultures, beliefs
involve numerous conicts with indigenous peoples on ethnic or
religious grounds. These conicts tend to turn into articulation of
radical positions and extremist activities. The aim of this study
was to analyze the current state of terrorist acts and identify the
determinants of terrorism on racial and religious grounds in
Western Europe. The statistical method, comparison, graphic
analysis, analysis of the Global Index of Terrorism; The European Union
reports on the situation and trends of terrorism, as well as the research
on terrorism-related issues for 2011-2021, were used as empirical research
methods. It is determined that the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Belgium,
Spain, Italy, and Sweden are subject to the highest risk of terrorist acts. It
was proved that the determinants of terrorism are localized in relation to
key issues related to the state of the economic sphere, social development,
as well as the spiritual and cultural sphere. Emphasis is placed on the need
to overcome the problems associated with terrorist activities by formulating
a policy of national means of resolving ethnic and racial issues and active
international cooperation. Further research will identify key determinants
of terrorism in Eastern Europe.
* Doctor of Law, Professor of Department of Criminal Law and Procedure, Institute of Jurisprudence,
Psychology and Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic National University. ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-7483-3836
** Candidate of Law, Associate Professor of Department of Criminal Law and Procedure, Institute of
Jurisprudence, Psychology аnd Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic National University. ORCID
ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2254-6990
*** Candidate of Law, Assistant of Department of criminal law and procedure, Institute of Jurisprudence,
Psychology and Innovative Education, Lviv Polytechnic National University. ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-2756-4557
**** Guarantor of security management studies, Associate Professor of AMBIS, a.s. Vyská škola. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0941-4686
***** Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor of Department of Philosophy and History, Humanitarian
Institute, V.I. Vernadsky Taurida National University. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
4324-1336
45
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
Keywords: terrorism and state; democracy and extremism; national
security; determinants; conicts.
Determinantes raciales y religiosos del terrorismo en
Europa occidental
Resumen
El acercamiento gradual entre pueblos, culturas, creencias implica
numerosos conictos con los pueblos indígenas por motivos étnicos o
religiosos. Estos conictos tienden a convertirse en articulaciones de
posiciones radicales y actividades extremistas. El objetivo de este estudio
fue analizar el estado actual de los actos terroristas e identicar los
determinantes del terrorismo por motivos raciales y religiosos en Europa
Occidental. Se empleo el método estadístico, comparativo, análisis grácos,
análisis del Índice Global de Terrorismo; Los informes de la Unión Europea
sobre la situación y las tendencias del terrorismo, así como la investigación
sobre cuestiones relacionadas con el terrorismo para 2011-2021, de modo
que se utilizaron como métodos de investigación empíricos. Se determina
que el Reino Unido, Francia, Alemania, Grecia, Bélgica, España, Italia y
Suecia están sujetos al mayor riesgo de actos terroristas. Se comprobó que
los determinantes del terrorismo se localizan en relación con cuestiones
clave relacionadas con el estado de la esfera económica, el desarrollo social,
así como la esfera espiritual y cultural. Se hace hincapié en la necesidad de
superar los problemas asociados con las actividades terroristas mediante
la formulación de una política de medios nacionales para resolver los
problemas étnicos y raciales y la cooperación internacional activa.
Palabras clave: terrorismo y estado; democracia y extremismo;
seguridad nacional; determinantes; conictos.
Introduction
Acceleration of the manifestation of factors that demonstrate the
diversity of the world, its dierentiation, the authenticity of cultural,
linguistic, ideological manifestations of local societies is signicant.
Ideologically constructed manifestations of one’s identity give rise to
growth in the world of conicts, misunderstandings, and xenophobia.
This often turns into extremist (terrorist) actions by certain members of
certain groups of like-minded people and entails tragic consequences. The
countries of Western Europe, which experience complex consequences of
46 Kostyantyn Marysyuk, Mykhailo Huzela, Nataliia Slotvinska, Ivo Svoboda y Igor Kudrya
Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe
multiculturalism, given the increase in the ow of immigrants and refugees
in recent decades, have not avoided terrorist acts. So, it should be noted
that a signicant number of terrorist incidents occur on ethnic and racial
grounds. Terrorist activities in this study are considered to be the threat
or actual use of violence by individuals or groups of individuals to achieve
political, economic, religious or social goals.
According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), about 100,000 people
died in terrorist attacks between 2014 and 2017 (Institute for Economics
and Peace, 2018; 2019; 2020). In 2019, there were almost 8,500 terrorist
attacks worldwide, carrying away more than 20,300 people, including 5,460
criminals and 14,840 of their victims. It should be noted that the number
of terrorist attacks in Western Europe decreased by 6% from 2018 to 2019
(from 203 to 191 incidents, respectively), continuing the downward trend
from 2015. Mass terrorist attacks in 2019 in Western Europe remained
relatively infrequent. Of the 191 terrorist attacks, nine were incidents in
which four people were injured or killed (University of Maryland, 2019).
According to the German intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz), there
were about 4,000 politically or religiously motivated crimes in the country
in 2017 (BMI, 2018). A representative survey in France found that 16% of
the adult population and 27% of young people aged 18 to 24 agree with the
ISIS goals (Fischer, 2014).
European nations have faced security challenges in recent decades, the
violence and consequences of terrorism have become tragic for many people
and communities. The resurgence of ethno-nationalist populist movements
across Europe has further strengthened the perception of ethnic and
religious minority groups as dangerous (Amnesty International and the
Open Society Foundations, 2021). Despite the decline in the total number
of attacks and deaths caused, religiously motivated terrorist attacks are on
the rise (Løvlien, 2021).
Analysis of data on terrorist acts shows that nationalist ideology is
a more common feature than religious ideology in modern terrorism.
Religious terrorist groups cause more deaths than other types of terrorist
acts. Groups classied as exclusively Islamist have caused more deaths
than all other nationalist groups. Modern religious terrorism threatens
more people (Romano and Phelps, 2019). Some scholars identify Islamic
ideology as the direct cause of the radicalization of Muslims, leading to
extremist actions and terrorist attacks. Another view is that Islamist groups
formulate the demands and agenda of radicalized people (Egger and Magni-
Berton, 2021). In Western Europe, immigration has some connection to
the level of terrorism in the country, which determines dissatisfaction with
the existence of migrants and changes in social order but is not related
to economic competition between the local population and immigrants
(McAlexander, 2020).
47
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
Radicalization and extremism can be described as the result of a
number of (social, individual) determinants (Lerner, 2018) that inuence
the development of extremist behaviour. Researchers (Kis-Katos et al.,
2014) argue that terrorist acts have dierent determinants, based on the
problems of individual radical groups, dierent opportunities to reach
compromises, and their own organizational constraints. The ideological
foundations of a terrorist group can be motivated by various determinants
based on their own ideology. For example, ethnic discrimination may be
relevant to the manifestation of nationalist-separatist terrorism (Brockho
et al., 2016). But the determinants of ethnic and religious terrorism have
both dierences and common features (Kis-Katos et al., 2014).
The problem of growing inequality due to austerity policies has led to a
decline in social mobility, which has aected both the local population and
national minorities, in particular in urban post-industrial settlements. This
has exacerbated identity, citizenship and aliation (especially in parts of
Western Europe where industrial cities have faced a decline). Some changes
in the local economy have led to a crisis, where the traditional practice of
patriarchy has been threatened by the liberalization of labour markets,
complicated by issues of identity uncertainty (perceptions of citizenship,
belonging to religious and ethnic groups). The impact of these structural
and cultural changes has led to the desire of far-right groups to avoid the
risks of policy expansion based on diversity and multiculturalism (Abbas,
2020).
Given the conquest of right-wing populism and ethnic nationalism in
Western European society, the problem of a general right-wing movement
with the speeches of political leaders who support a broader transnational
discourse is growing (Froio and Ganesh, 2018). This applies not only to
developed Western democracies such as the United Kingdom, Germany
and the Netherlands, but also to other liberal states such as Poland,
Hungary and Slovakia (Halikiopoulou, 2017). There is a need to assess the
dynamics of radicalization as embedded in social processes at the structural
level, where concerns about identity, belonging and self-realization are
fundamental (Abbas, 2020).
Ethnic identity refers to the feeling of aliation with an ethnic group
and the part of thinking, perception, feelings and behaviour that is due to
belonging to an ethnic group. Religious identity is a specic type of identity.
This is the feeling of group religious membership and the importance of
such participation in the group, as it relates to personal philosophy (Ngari
and Reva, 2017). If religion is understood as an ideology, many world
ideologies tend to show a high level of intolerance, which leads to violence
(Tarlow, 2017).
Actions that are deeply biased in terms of ethnic aliation, religion,
and similar factors arise a sense of discrimination in communities, creating
48 Kostyantyn Marysyuk, Mykhailo Huzela, Nataliia Slotvinska, Ivo Svoboda y Igor Kudrya
Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe
an impression of intentional state pressure on communities through the
religion or ethnic aliation of members. This discrepancy in the relationship
between states and ethnic or religious groups raises serious concerns about
discrimination and equal treatment of the law (Ngari and Reva, 2017).
At the broadest level, political, religious and other extremism is dened
as a signicant deviation in attitude and behaviour from basic legal and
political norms and values within the social system (society or state), which
seek to abolish and replace them (Beelmann et al., 2017). For example,
terrorist activities based on religious and ethnic factors may arise from
incomplete modernization in the social, political, and cultural spheres
due to the clash of the modern and the traditional (Pain, 2007). The rise
of right-wing nationalism can be seen as a response to growing European
integration, which expresses transitional and modernization diculties
(Straume, 2012).
The model of radicalization begins with the denition of terrorist acts
in several ways: a signicant deviation in attitude and actions from specic
fundamental, political, legal and humanitarian norms and values. The main
issue is the values and goals that underlie views and actions, not the violence
used to achieve them. But judgments about radicalization and extremism
do not necessarily have to be based on clearly dened attitudes and actions.
Interconnected but dierent processes of social development are central
to radicalization and extremism: problems of identity, prejudice, political
or religious ideologies, and antisocial attitudes and behaviours. These
processes are caused by real social or individual conicts and are marked
by constant intergroup processes (Beelmann, 2020).
Racism can be characterized by the promotion of natural and hereditary
dierences between races, with the main belief emphasizing the superiority
of one race over another, which is reduced to a certain incompatibility
of habits and cultures. Non-natives are perceived as a threat to host
communities, based on xenophobia, which is dened as fear, hatred or
hostility towards “foreigners” (Mudde, 1995).
The debate on security in Europe borders on ideology-driven discussions
on migration, social change and terrorism. Relative security in Europe
may explain the rise of xenophobic politics by Western political actors,
who believe that globalization is causing irreversible changes in the very
nature of European society (Richards, 2017). Extreme political parties often
propose to redistribute resources outside certain subgroups of society, such
as ethnic minorities or citizens living in certain regions (Brückner and
Grüner, 2020).
Conceptually, extremism gets its essence through association with other
ideas — totalitarianism and terrorism, referring to the opposition of such
concepts as democracy, openness, liberalism, tolerance and moderation
49
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
(El-Ojeili and Taylor, 2020). Based on the features most often mentioned in
the existing denitions of extremism, it can be noted that authoritarianism,
anti-democracy and nationalism determine the properties of extremism.
In contrast, xenophobia and racism are concomitant characteristics of
the concept. Right-wing extremism is an ideology that embraces anti-
democracy and nationalism (Carter, 2018).
Given the undeniable importance of the problem, the aim of this
study is to identify the racial and religious determinants of terrorism in
Western Europe. The main objectives of the study are: obtain information
on terrorist acts on racial and religious grounds based on a sample and
analysis of the Global Database on Terrorism on the number of terrorist
acts in Western Europe; determine the level of terrorist threat based on
the analysis of data from the Global Terrorism Index to identify the risk
of terrorist acts in Western Europe; identify the key determinants of the
emergence of terrorist acts in Western Europe on the basis of modern
research; propose approaches that can deter the development of terrorism
on racial and religious grounds.
1. Methods
Information and analytical sources, which contain processed data
on terrorist activities, as well as studies that are indexed in the Scopus
scientometric database were used as an empirical basis. The materials for
the study were the Global Database on Terrorism (University of Maryland,
2021); the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) study (Institute for Economics
and Peace, 2020); European Union reports on the situation and trends
of terrorism (Europol, 2021), and scientic articles examining terrorism-
related issues for 2011-2021.
The use of the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is related to the fact
that it includes information on domestic and international terrorist acts
around the world from 1970 to 2019, and includes more than 200,000
cases. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses
to Terrorism (START) provides access the GTD database online for better
understanding, detailed research information and prevention of terrorist
acts (University of Maryland, 2021). The use of the Global Terrorism Index
(GTI) (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020) helped to determine the level
of terrorist activity in Western Europe and to determine which countries
and to what extent face a terrorist threat. The European Union’s Terrorism
Situation and Trends Report (Europol, 2021) provided information on
terrorist attacks and terrorism-related arrests in the European Union (EU)
in 2020, submitted to Europol by EU Member States. Search and analysis of
scientic articles allowed us to identify the main determinants of terrorism
in Western Europe.
50 Kostyantyn Marysyuk, Mykhailo Huzela, Nataliia Slotvinska, Ivo Svoboda y Igor Kudrya
Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe
According to the categories of variables (University of Maryland, 2018)
contained in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), the selection of the
necessary information on terrorism on racial and religious grounds involves
the following steps. The rst limitation was the separation of Western
European countries according to a sample based on the regional classier
— Western Europe. The next step was to select from the total number of
terrorist incidents those that concerned only racial and religious incidents.
According to the classier (University of Maryland, 2018), incidents related
to racial and religious factors are identied by the codes: 69 — Religion
Identied, 71 — Race/Ethnicity Identied, 85 — Religious Figure, 86 — Place
of Worship, 87 — Aliated Institution. The last approach is separation of
the information on terrorist acts on racial and religious grounds for 2000-
2019. A comparative analysis was conducted based on the obtained data.
A study of the Global Terrorism Index for 2017-2020 and the use of
a graphical method of analysis allowed identifying Western European
countries with the highest risk of terrorist acts and changes in their level.
At the nal stage, the methodology included the identication of the main
determinants of terrorism in Western Europe on the basis of research on
terrorism issues for 2011-2021. The result of generalization was to determine
the directions of localization of issues that give rise to the determinants of
racial and religious terrorism.
The research procedure included the following stages: determining
the countries in which the terrorist acts on racial and religious grounds
were reported; analysis of the level of terrorist threat; identication of
key determinants of terrorism on racial and religious grounds in Western
Europe.
2. Results
The number of terrorist acts on racial and religious grounds in Western
Europe in 2000-2019 was determined based on the results of sampling
information from the Global Terrorism Database, which is presented in
Table 1.
Restrictions of Western European countries on the basis of the reginal
classier — Western Europe — identied 18 countries of Western Europe,
which recorded terrorist acts on racial and religious grounds in 2000-2019
(Table 1).
51
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
Table 1. Number of terrorist acts on racial and religious
grounds in Western Europe in 2000-2019.
Country
Number
of
terrorist
acts
Target/Victim Subtype
69 –
Religion
Identied
71 –
Race/
Ethnicity
Identied
85 –
Religious
Figure
86 –
Place of
Worship
87 –
Aliated
Institution
Austria 3 1 1 1
Belgium 6 1 1 4
Cyprus 2 2
Denmark 2 2
Finland 3 3
France 48 6 3 5 34
Germany 32 1 6 24 1
Greece 11 3 2 6
Iceland 1 1
Ireland 1 1
Italy 17 3 13 1
Malta 1 1
Netherlands 8 8
Norway 3 1 2
Spain 9 2 1 6
Sweden 12 1 10 1
Switzerland 1 1
United
Kingdom 146 49 15 2 72 8
Source: compiled based on (University of Maryland, 2021)
Accordingly, the comparison of terrorist acts on racial and religious
grounds (8.48%) with the total number of terrorist acts for other reasons
(91.52%) in Western Europe in 2000-2019 is presented in Figure 1.
52 Kostyantyn Marysyuk, Mykhailo Huzela, Nataliia Slotvinska, Ivo Svoboda y Igor Kudrya
Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe
Figure 1. The number of terrorist acts on racial and religious
grounds in the total number of terrorist acts in Western Europe
in 2000-2019
A study of the Global Terrorism Index in EU member states for 2017-
2020 showed that the highest risk of terrorist acts was found in the UK,
France, Germany, Greece, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Sweden (Figure 2).
This information conrms the preliminary data on the number of terrorist
acts on racial and religious grounds in Western Europe in 2000-2019
(Table 1). It should be noted based on the data obtained, that the situation
in the studied countries of Western Europe regarding terrorist acts on racial
and religious grounds correlates with the results that reect the situation
regarding the general trends of the risk of terrorist threats.
It can be noted from the data obtained during the study, that the issue
of terrorist acts has become more acute in the EU countries due to the
inuence of ISIS. ISIS terrorists attacked individual targets and public
places, attracting recruiters from European countries. Most of the incidents
in Western Europe were based on the use of various means to injure or
kill people. For example, the deadly attempted attack on a synagogue in
Germany in October 2019 demonstrated the serious danger of terrorism
on racial and religious grounds. The majority of terrorism-related arrests
in France have been made against individuals and groups suspected of
involvement in ISIS. The German government has identied Islamist
terrorists and terrorism on racial or religious grounds as the greatest
threat to national security. The United Kingdom continues to stabilize the
situation in Iraq and northeastern Syria, which has the potential to combat
counter-terrorism and ISIS activities, and remains a top priority.
53
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
According to the latest data from the European Police Oce (Europol),
religious terrorism in the EU Member States remains the greatest terrorist
threat. There were three terrorist attacks in the UK in 2020, and Switzerland
was attacked by two jihadists. So, there were 15 completed jihadist attacks
in Europe (EU, Switzerland and the UK) in 2020, which was twice as
many as in 2019 in the EU (including the UK). In 2020, France and Spain
reported 14 terrorist attacks by ethno-nationalists and separatists targeting
infrastructure (Europol, 2021).
Figure 2. Global Terrorism Index in EU Member States for
2017-2020 (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2020; Institute
for Economics and Peace, 2019; Institute for Economics and
Peace, 2018)
The next result, which was obtained according to the methodological
approach, is the identication of the main determinants of terrorism in
Western Europe. The main determinants of terrorism are identied based
on the study of terrorism-related issues for 2011-2021 (Table 2).
54 Kostyantyn Marysyuk, Mykhailo Huzela, Nataliia Slotvinska, Ivo Svoboda y Igor Kudrya
Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe
Table 2. Key determinants of terrorism
Determinants of terrorism Source
Uneven economic development,
dicult economic conditions, declining
economic growth
(Shahbaz, 2013; Meierrieks, 2014;
Poveda, 2012; Hou, 2021)
Income inequality (Shahbaz, 2013; Sanso-Navarro et al.,
2021)
Lack of education, education coverage
level (Shahbaz, 2013; Nurunnabi and
Sghaier, 2018)
Unemployment, employment rate,
labour market conditions (Shahbaz, 2013; Okafor and Piesse,
2018; Ismail and Amjad, 2014; Okafor
and Piesse, 2018; Nurunnabi and
Sghaier, 2018; Sanso-Navarro and
Vera-Cabello, 2020; Sanso-Navarro et
al., 2021)
Signicant number of people with low
living standards (low GDP per capita) (Shahbaz, 2013; Ismail and Amjad,
2014; Poveda, 2012; Tahir et al., 2019;
Tahir, 2020)
Increasing population density (Freytag et al., 2011; Hou, 2021)
Lack of eective and strong political
control, political instability, civil wars,
number of refugees
(Okafor and Piesse, 2018; Tahir et
al., 2019; Coggins, 2015; Nurunnabi
and Sghaier, 2018; Tahir, 2020; Hou,
2021)
Ethnic, linguistic diversity of society (Gassebner and Luechinger, 2011)
Religious diversity of society, religious
fanaticism (Gassebner and Luechinger, 2011;
Halkos et al., 2017)
Rising ination (Ismail and Amjad, 2014)
Accumulation of human capital (Okafor and Piesse, 2018)
The importance of the business sector (Sanso-Navarro et al., 2021)
According to the identied determinants of terrorism, we can say that
they are localized in terms of the key issues of the economic sphere (low
level of economic development, poverty, unemployment, ination, etc.),
social development (education, human capital), as well as spiritual and
cultural sphere (ethnicity, language, religion). It should be noted based
on the aim of our study, that the areas of localization of issues that give
rise to the determinants of terrorism on racial and religious grounds, in
addition to the directly mentioned problems, are additional problems in the
economic and social spheres. This reinforces the causes and consequences
of extremist actions on ethnic and religious grounds.
It should be noted that, despite some reduction in terrorist acts in
Western Europe, terrorism on racial or ethnic grounds (of jihadist terrorism
55
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
and terrorists coming from conict zones) is of particular concern. These
activities pose signicant threats, given the support of an extensive network
of EU citizens who are radicalized and may be complicit in terrorist acts on
racial and ethnic grounds.
3. Discussion
The results of this study have certain features related to the approaches
used to identify racial and religious determinants of terrorism. The
proposed methodological approaches used in the study were based on
information from the Global Terrorism Database. This database contains
data on terrorist incidents from 1970 to 2019. The use of data sampling
since 2000 has somewhat narrowed the array of information. But given
that the period of the last two decades shows a signicant increase in the
number of terrorist acts and their objective record in the database, we
consider this time period sucient to draw our own conclusions.
The use of the regional classier — Western Europe — has limited the
number to 18 Western European countries (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom), which reduced the representativeness of the analysis. At the
same time, the use of these European countries has been sucient to
demonstrate the share of terrorist acts on ethnic and religious grounds in the
total array of terrorist incidents for other reasons. Besides, the restriction
of the sample from the Global Terrorism Database only by the codes: 69 —
Religion Identied, 71 — Race / Ethnicity Identied, 85 — Religious Figure,
86 — Place of Worship, 87 — Aliated Institution shows only a xed
number of consequences of terrorist acts on ethnic and religious grounds.
But other target subtypes identied by the Global Terrorism Database
may include incidents on ethnic and religious grounds. So, the number of
terrorist incidents committed on ethnic and religious grounds may actually
be higher. Unfortunately, the Global Terrorism Database does not contain
data on the motives for committing terrorist acts.
As we can see from the analysis of research on terrorism on racial and
religious grounds, the threats posed to certain religious groups are an
important factor in intensifying the radicalization of the belief system,
which may have involved nonviolent action. These ndings were conrmed
by a Dutch study on the impact of collective identity and identity factors on
attitudes towards violence in defence of religion or ethnicity (Van Bergen et
al., 2015). The results of the study demonstrate the role of religious beliefs
and their impact on the willingness to justify terrorism, which is closely
linked to the strengthening of religious practices around the world (Egger
and Magni-Berton, 2021).
56 Kostyantyn Marysyuk, Mykhailo Huzela, Nataliia Slotvinska, Ivo Svoboda y Igor Kudrya
Racial and Religious Determinants of Terrorism in Western Europe
The ndings support evidence that belonging to a lower-middle-income
minority group is signicantly more likely to support a more radical view of
terrorism tactics (Løvlien, 2021). The key determinants of terrorist activity,
which are identied in this study, expand the previous results, considering
a combination of factors of social development, economic and spiritual and
cultural spheres as reasons.
The close link between extremist acts and violence, terrorist acts and
the deaths of civilians urges the importance of such topics as security,
deterrence, preventive actions, and the protection of democratic heritage;
implementation of policies aimed at combating the ideas of xenophobia and
intolerance, deradicalization; relevance of diagnosis of economic, social,
spiritual and psychological factors.
Modern experience in the ght against terrorism in the world proves that
the formation of policies which increase pressure on communities diering
in their ideology, culture and religion; identifying them as dangerous and
suspicious, distinguishing local communities under national paternalism,
can create complications and controversy. Strengthening authoritarian
measures can increase the long-term risks of lack of trust between certain
communities in the country, complicate the issue of refugee adaptation,
which will aect the ability to maintain social achievements based on
democratic principles and freedoms.
Countering terrorism involves the development of multi-sectoral
policies and measures on the possibilities of intervention, which can be
the basis for ghting terrorism. These approaches should use proactive
countermeasures, as well as operational security issues, police and
intelligence. The ght against terrorism must build the resilience of
the community and the ability to protect and counter those problematic
features that potentially aect threats to national security. Besides, the
eective response of the state to extremist acts and terrorist acts of a
religious and ethnic nature should include a number of coordinated actions
both within the country and internationally, including security, national
minority, religious and immigration policies. The key approaches remain
to ensure the development of cultural heritage by states and the provision
of opportunities for spiritual and religious activities of national minorities
in the territories of indigenous communities of Western Europe.
Conclusion
The study of the determinants of terrorism on racial and religious
grounds in Western Europe is a critical issue, given the possible tragic
consequences of extremist activities. The atmosphere of intolerance of
ethnic and religious dierences is quite common, including the current
57
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Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 44-61
situation in countries with developed democratic values. The available data
set analysed in the study allowed us to partially distinguish terrorist acts on
ethnic and racial grounds from the total number of terrorist acts in Western
Europe in 2000-2019. The analysis demonstrates a high risk of terrorist
acts (including ethnic and religious ones) in the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Greece, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Sweden. It is determined that
the determinants of terrorism are caused by the problems of the economic
sphere, social development, as well as spiritual and cultural sphere.
Overcoming the challenges of terrorism must be based on policies that
shape both domestic means of resolving ethnic and racial issues and active
international action. The obtained results were based on the available data
of countries that have come a long way in the development of democratic
values and human freedoms. It will be useful to identify the key determinants
of terrorism in Eastern Europe in further research.
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