The debate about radicalization that leads to Islamist inspired militant activity in recent years has mainly concentrated on the individual or group level. What has been lacking from the research agenda is the environment directly surrounding these individuals and groups, which some researchers now call the “milieu” to which individuals and small groups are linked. The relationship with these environments is more complex than that of a breeding ground, support network or a group that the militants want to mobilize with their actions.
Incorporating crucial earlier research by Quintan Wiktorowicz, Donatella della Porta and recent theoretical developments by Peter Waldmann and Peter Malthaner this paper fills two important gabs in the research on radicalization and militant activity. It provides crucial testing of the theoretical considerations suggested by those authors, indicating similarities as well as differences between groups of similar ideological orientation. At the same time it finally casts light on the development of the Salafist-Jihadist scene in Germany- currently the country with the most active Foreign Fighter community in Europe- since the 1990s by providing three in-depth case studies of radical milieus in Germany.
