Why are Islamic extremists still attacking the West?

The creation of the so-called Islamic State in 2014 should have ended the terror attacks on the West. Here’s why it didn’t.

A memorial in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo attack in the city in January 2015. Al-Qaeda sponsored it, says Gwynne Dyer, and Islamic State replied with a bigger attack in Paris last November.Photograph courtesy of the French government

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

June 1, 2016

LONDON, U.K.—Because most people think of Islamic State, al-Qaeda and their ilk as being crazies motivated solely by hatred, they are not puzzled by recent terrorist attacks on the West like those in Paris and Brussels. Like the villains in comic books, the terrorists are simply evil, and no furth...

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