Olivier Roy (political scientist)

Olivier Roy (born 1949 in La Rochelle) is a French political scientist, professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

[9] Roy received an agrégation in philosophy and a master's degree in Persian language and civilization in 1972 from the French Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales.

[12] According to Judith Miller, in the wake of the September 11 attacks Olivier argued that militant Islamism of the type represented by Al Qaeda had peaked and was fading into insignificance.

After the Charlie Hebdo shooting he argued that most French Muslims were committed to prevent violence,[14] and after the November 2015 Paris attacks, he wrote a strategic analysis of ISIS and the fight against it, published in The New York Times.

[15] Roy has said "I have been accused of disregarding the link between terrorist violence and the religious radicalisation of Islam through Salafism, the ultra-conservative interpretation of the faith.

I am fully aware of all of these dimensions; I am simply saying that they are inadequate to account for the phenomena we study, because no causal link can be found on the basis of the empirical data we have available.