With the recent beheadings and shootings in France, Islam – or at least that radical expression of it known as Islamism - has forced its way back into the headlines and tv news programmes of the western world.  Truth be told though, it has never been far from the news for the last fifty years. From the days of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Black September terrorist groups in the 1970s, through to current groups such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram and Al-Shabab, the last fifty years has been peppered with incidents and wars inspired by Islam.   These recent iterations of Islamic violence are symptomatic of  an approach to advancing the faith that goes back to the earliest days of Islam and the example of their prophet Muhammed himself.  Warfare and conquest are in the Islamic DNA.