And for a small group of Muslims, tribalism has led them to find their identity and an authentic Islam in Islamism.
That idea is deftly countered in this brilliant and provocative book by a leading French specialist on modern Islam.Gilles Kepel argues that the attack can only be understood in the light of the rise and fall of political Islam, or Islamism as he calls it, over the past quarter-century.
Neither side has convinced the electorate these are real solutions rather than wishful thinking.Meanwhile, the killings in Toulouse have brought security and Islamism to the top of the agenda.
Hitchens found Tunisia to be a "mild" place and, although he expressed disquiet at the 20 years that Ben Ali had been in power, the ubiquity of his image and the general reluctance of people to discuss politics, he was comforted by the availability of contraception, young people holding hands, and other clearly visible signs of "western values" and indifference to the puritan values of Islamism.
Related: Declassified: Washington's hesitant plans for a military coup in pre-revolution Iran Overall, the periphery doctrine waned in the 1980s with progress in peace talks with 'core' Arab states and apparently the Palestinians, before re-emerging after 2010 in a different guise as Israel confronted not hostile Arab states but various strains of militant Islamism.
Yet many pro-Islamists respect Mr Moussa as a man of experience, even if he does not brandish his faith on his sleeve.In a mirror image his opponent, Abdel Moneim Abolfotoh, occupies the liberal end of Islamism.
He is not an especially political animal but he knows what he doesn't like the authoritarian Islamism which seems to be threatening Turkey's secular governance.
Bangladesh has emerged in a promising way from the challenges of militarism and Islamism.
Again, the answer is no.In this section Terror in Paris What Vlad can learn from Chad A long way from dismal Off target The next failed state Reprints Related topics Islamism Government and politics Terrorism War and conflict Charlie Hebdo MagazineCartoons versus KalashnikovsCharlie Hebdo has been hit before.
The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the rewarding of the "detested figure" as another example of British anti-Islamism.
But it was now "at war": "not against a religion" but "against terrorism, jihadism and radical Islamism .Mr Valls's words, which earned him an astonishing standing ovation from left and right, came on the day when shock, horror and defiance gave way to national grief.
