Latest developments suggest that we need to reevaluate the strategy for combating terrorism. To
advise appropriate policies, one needs to identify the enemy’s center of gravity. This paper argues that if we
want to truly understand the threat from religious militant organizations, we need to identify the causes that
generate such militant ideology. The problem with the modern terrorism is conceived in the 1980s, but the
reasons that led to it have its roots decades earlier. Crucial part of the equation is the role of the Western
democracies and their influences in the Muslim world. This paper proposes a cross examination of three
historical periods with three possible explanations that feeds the militant ideology
