ABSTRACT
Beginning in the 1980s, anti-modernisation forces in the Islamic world began to mobilise seriously. With extreme Jihadist Islam as an ideological base, the hatred of the Jewish Israeli state as a catalyst, and a general rejection of modernisation the larger context. Islamic radicalism declared war on the West. At first the West did not notice. After 9/11 it did, and Bush declared and fought a Global War on Terror. The election contest in 2004 between Senator Kerry and George W Bush rested upon the judgement of the US electorate on how well the GWOT was proceeding, especially in the Iraq theatre. The two candidates, however, did not differ substantially on the need to continue the war against Al Qaeda and to defeat Jihadists and both viewed it as being a struggle between the forces of good and evil. The re-election of Bush in 2004 ensured a sharp ideological edge to the war on terror.
