For years, counter-terrorism efforts and academic research have tried to identify “root causes,” such as poverty, education, social status, employment, and gender and age, into a predictive template. The aim is to spot otherwise “normal” people potentially susceptible to the pull of what Gurski calls the al-Qaida-inspired narrative, that Islam is under attack by the West and mandates a chosen few to respond. The current ISIL narrative is much the same.

But the problem with trying to understand the root causes of why people are driven to terrorism is that there is no common path. There are too many “whys,” too wide a range of backgrounds and circumstances, to fit into a concise, simple categorization, he says.
The 12 indicators (and number of times each was present in the 17 cases):

Sudden increase in intolerant religiosity/change in behaviour (7)
Intolerance for certain Muslim beliefs (1)
Intolerance for non-Muslims (3)
Rejection of Western ways (5)
Rejection of Western policies (7)
Change in social circles (5)
Obsessive Internet use of violent sites (3)
Obsession with foreign conflicts (4)
Belief in the common narrative (6)
Obsession with violent jihad (5)
Obsession with martyrdom (6)
Obsession with end-times (1)

In my childhood I was told that every day that passes on the Islamic nation without a caliphate is a sin. That the failures and miseries of the Muslim world started the moment we gave up conquests and wars against the infidels. That our prosperity depends on conquering new lands, converting new believers, looting new resources and enslaving more women. I was taught that a Jew is essentially a demon in flesh and that it is our destiny as good Muslims to kill them all. I was regularly fueled by battle stories and stories of lethal feuds of seventh century Arabia. It was not just me, a small child in Cairo, who was raised with these great apocalyptic prophecies, it was also so many people from all around the globe.