The new world order and the tempo of militant Islam

This paper assesses the social and political conditions that have led to the emergence of militant Islamic groups in the Arab world, especially since the 1967 Six Day War. However, the paper goes beyond the genesis of militant Islam to contest the hypothesis of state‐sponsored terrorism by investigating two aspects of support that help keep the phenomenon alive; namely, their sources of funding and weapons. In turn, these aspects of support are broken down into international, regional, and local sources. The discussion shows that while the international and regional sources are significant, the local sources of support are decisive for the operations of the militant Islamic groups.