In the midst of the increasing violence and terrorism following the recent Barcelona attacks, followed by other lone wolf attacks in Finland and Russia, and the previous run-offs in Britain, France, Germany and Sweden, most recent studies tend to link the perpetrators’ record in criminality and the lack of religious commitment to these attacks. In addition to their existence in an environment that does not encourage real religious devotion. In a study conducted by Edwin Bakker between September 2001 and October 2006, 31 of the terrorist attacks (58 out of 242), which means 24% of those who committed such attacks, proved to have criminal records and spent periods in prison for theft, murder or drug offenses. Another study by Robin Simcox revealed that 58 people, which makes 22% of the individuals associated with 32 attacks in the Western countries, between July 2014 and August of 2015,had criminal records.

The same study showed that 29% of them were converted to Islam and that 67% of those who planned or participated in terrorist attacks in America in this period were converted to Islam, although their percentage of Muslim Americans does not exceed 20%. The same result has been demonstrated by a study by Scott Kleinman,which has shown that although converts to Islam in Britain account for 3% of Muslims only, they were responsible for more than 31% of the terrorist attacks in Britain between 2001 and 2010. A large percentage of these converts were introduced to the Islamic religion during serving sentences in prison, which linksbeing Muslim to their criminal past.

An academic study by Charles Russell, titled “The Background of the Extremists,” conducted on 350 extremists found that the overwhelming majority were 22-24 years old and had no higher education.

This criminal history wason the level of the perpetrators of these radical attacks. On the level of those who theorize and inspireradicals, the percentage issimilar. As a study of the International Center for the Study of Extremism and Political Violence showed” that 60% of ISIS members in the Western countries were religiously influenced by the preaching of Ahmed Moussa Jibril, an American, who is followed by – during the study period – 23,000 radicals on Twitter and 211,000 on Facebook.It is worth mentioning that 78% of the hits received by his page on Facebook and 86% of his Twitter followers are either supporters of ISIS or Nusra front. This self-proclaimed preacher has a criminal record in which he and his father were sentenced in 2004 to more than 42 criminal offenses in the United States, ranging from bank fraud and money laundering.He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. He was released from jail in 2012 to practice religious preaching, which, unfortunately, became the profession of any one without a job.

In this study conducted by the Voice of Wisdom Center, the background of all the perpetrators of crimes and terrorism committed in Europe between January 2015 and the Barcelona attacks this month (August 2017) is followed up. The study proved that 44% of those who committed these crimes under the name of defending Islam and Muslim issues had criminal records, and were drug addicts and drug traffickers in Europe, including a person who owned and sold a pub before committing his heinous terrorist act a few weeks later, such as Salah Abdel Salam, who was responsible for the deaths of more than 130 civilians in the Paris attacks in November 2015. 13% had a record of psychological issues, and their average age was 27.Only 2.7% of them had a high level of education and goodand stable jobs.

In light of these figures, which link the backgrounds of most of the perpetrators of these terrorist crimes with addiction, criminal acts, psychological disorders, failure at school, social, occupational and financial instability, we can explicitly address changes relatedto this phenomenon, which is rapidly headingtowardsbeing a purely criminal act. And consistent with the nature and history of the perpetrators more than being the result of a complex political and religious approach, which brings it closer to the concept of ‘waging a war on God and His Messenger,’to which the Islamic law has setdifferenttightened provisions because it is considered of the most terrible crimes.  Waging was stipulated in Islamic legislation and conditions mainly stating the gravity of the punishment resulting from committing such a crime, which was stated in the holy Quran.

*Dr.Tarik Ladjal is Professor of History at Effat University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia