Islamic extremism and the ideology that drives it is corrosive to the fabric of democracy and threatens to "spread through the generations" unless effective and urgent preventive measures are taken. That was one of the key messages to emerge from a high-profile briefing in Brussels on radicalisation. The briefing was organised by the European Foundation for Democracy in cooperation with the Institute of Peace and with the support of the Counter Extremism Project and the U.S Mission to the EU.