ABSTRACT
Terrorism is part of a strategy of 'asymmetrical warfare' that avoids open battle with the powers of the state but seeks to provoke a harsh response in an attempt to trigger waves of solidarity and support within those population groups of which the protagonists claim to be the avant-garde. Terrorism is therefore not the expression of a specific culture, it is primarily a means of extreme political struggle. Terrorism in Germany during the 1970s, for example, was successful in transforming the identity of the protagonists but failed to harness collective solidarity because people expressed sympathy not with the revolution but with the state under attack. German nationalism emerged during the Franco-Prussian wars, Kurdish nationalism increased in response to the central state's definition of the Kurds as 'mountain Turks'. According to one estimate, only a small number of North African immigrants in France are practicing Muslims. At the same time, this group includes a considerable number of Islamists.
