To consider the relationship between religion and violence in general and Islam and violence in particular is in many ways a perilous exercise. Caution is necessary, and empiricism: specific cases and precise actors, avoiding excessive generality. This report attempts a comprehensive approach, based around a through theoretical consideration and germane examples to assess the way actors work in certain social and religious settings justify the use of violence in the name of Islam. This perspective obviously rejects any mechanistic or genetic approach to violence. The report focuses on how this framework operates across a national environment, namely France, and how the international dimension relates to this.