Islamic terrorism: Fringe element or puritanical movement?

 

 Global Guerrillas

Here's a simple question.

Is Islamic terrorism the product of:

Option A:  A tiny, fringe element.  Dead-enders.  Crazies.

-or-

Option B:  A growing puritanical movement.  Fanatics.  

Before you answer this question, consider this.

The popular belief, from individuals to the government, is that option A is correct.  This makes sense.

 More than a decade of experience "fighting" al Qaeda supports it.  

However, this assumption may not be true anymore.

ISIS has nearly one hundred thousand soldiers on the ground.  Its ideology is so compelling 30,000 people travelled to Syria to join them.  It controls a territory with a population of nearly 5 million people and has a budget in the billions of $.

This looks a lot more like option B.