The European Union and the Threat of Al-Qaeda

Abstract

The threatening messages issued by Osama Bin Laden or his supporters continue to cause a legitimate stir in Europe and even enjoy a significant amount of media coverage. However jihadist terror comprises just a small share of the terrorist threat in Europe: of the 294 terrorist attacks registered by EUROPOL in 2009 only one could be defined as being of Islamist origin. This was the 12^th October 2009 attack on a Milanese barracks by a Libyan citizen who was quickly brought under control; this attack which apparently was an individual initiative revealed no links with Al-Qaeda, whose concept of mass terror this event did not match.