The Enigma of Islamist Violence

The Enigma of Islamist Violence PDF Author: Amélie Blom
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Are suicide bombers pathological, as psychologists claim, or clever strategists? Are suicide attacks perpetrated by Islamists as a matter of belief or do they reflect socio-economic realities? The debate surrounding Islamist violence remains locked in oppositional arguments that fail to take into account the variety of its global manifestations. Suicide attacks are relatively common in Kashmir and Israel, but almost nonexistent in Algeria and Yemen, two countries that have hosted long-running, violent Islamist campaigns. In this volume, leading scholars transcend rigid and disembodied readings of Islamist violence by focusing on the highly diverse, local origins of this contemporary phenomenon. Contributors: Amélie Blom (Centre de Recherches Internationales de la Sorbonne (CRIS, Université Paris-I); Ludmila du Bouchet (University of Cambridge); Lætitia Bucaille (University of Bordeaux); Olivier Grojean (Université de Lille 2); Jan-Erik Lane (University of Geneva); Pénélope Larzillière (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement); Luis Martinez (CERI-Sciences-Po); Hamadi Redissi (University of Tunis, Tunisia)

The Enigma of Islamist Violence

The Enigma of Islamist Violence PDF Author: Amélie Blom
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
Are suicide bombers pathological, as psychologists claim, or clever strategists? Are suicide attacks perpetrated by Islamists as a matter of belief or do they reflect socio-economic realities? The debate surrounding Islamist violence remains locked in oppositional arguments that fail to take into account the variety of its global manifestations. Suicide attacks are relatively common in Kashmir and Israel, but almost nonexistent in Algeria and Yemen, two countries that have hosted long-running, violent Islamist campaigns. In this volume, leading scholars transcend rigid and disembodied readings of Islamist violence by focusing on the highly diverse, local origins of this contemporary phenomenon. Contributors: Amélie Blom (Centre de Recherches Internationales de la Sorbonne (CRIS, Université Paris-I); Ludmila du Bouchet (University of Cambridge); Lætitia Bucaille (University of Bordeaux); Olivier Grojean (Université de Lille 2); Jan-Erik Lane (University of Geneva); Pénélope Larzillière (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement); Luis Martinez (CERI-Sciences-Po); Hamadi Redissi (University of Tunis, Tunisia)

Militant Islam

Militant Islam PDF Author: Stephen Vertigans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134126387
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Militant Islam provides a sociological framework for understanding the rise and character of recent Islamic militancy. It takes a systematic approach to the phenomenon and includes analysis of cases from around the world, comparisons with militancy in other religions, and their causes and consequences. The sociological concepts and theories examined in the book include those associated with social closure, social movements, nationalism, risk, fear and ‘de-civilising’. These are applied within three main themes; characteristics of militant Islam, multi-layered causes and the consequences of militancy, in particular Western reactions within the ‘war on terror’. Interrelationships between religious and secular behaviour, ‘terrorism’ and ‘counter-terrorism’, popular support and opposition are explored. Through the examination of examples from across Muslim societies and communities, the analysis challenges the popular tendency to concentrate upon ‘al-Qa’ida’ and the Middle East. This book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Political Science and International Relations, in particular those taking courses on Islam, religion, terrorism, political violence and related regional studies.

Why Muslims Rebel

Why Muslims Rebel PDF Author: Mohammed M. Hafez
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781588263025
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Rejecting theories of economic deprivation and psychological alienation, Mohammed Hafez offers a provocative analysis of the factors that contribute to protracted violence in the Muslim world today. Hafez combines a sophisticated theoretical approach and detailed case studies to show that the primary source of Islamist insurgencies lies in the repressive political environments within which the vast majority of Muslims find themselves. Highlighting when and how institutional exclusion and indiscriminate repression contribute to large-scale rebellion, he provides a crucial dimension to our understanding of Islamic politics.

Crescent and Sword

Crescent and Sword PDF Author: Are J. Knudsen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788280620989
Category : Islam and politics
Languages : en
Pages : 15

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Book Description
This paper analyses the popular support to Hamas, the most important of the Palestinian Islamist movements today. The paper charts the movement's historical ascendancy from a fringe Gaza-based group to a mainstream Islamist movement and mouthpiece for dispossessed Palestinians. Since 2001, Hamas's leadership has come under increasing attack from Israel, killing a number of the movement's leaders and senior members, most prominently Sheikh Yasin, the movement's founder and spiritual leader, and his successor as Hamas leader, Abd al-Aziz Rantissi. Nonetheless, Hamas's duality as "worshippers" and "warmongers" has made the organisation extraordinarily popular among dispossessed Palestinians and a mounting political challenge to the secular nationalism of the PLO. At present, two-thirds of the Palestinians live below the "poverty line" and it is likely that it is in this disenfranchised segment of the population that Hamas finds its core support. Presently, about one in every six Palestinians in the Occupied Territories benefits from support from Islamic charities. Hamas, on its part, allocates almost all of its revenues to its social services, but there is no evidence that Hamas or the other Islamic charities provide assistance conditional upon political support.

Militant Islam

Militant Islam PDF Author: Stephen Vertigans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134126395
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Militant Islam provides a sociological framework for understanding the rise and character of recent Islamic militancy. It takes a systematic approach to the phenomenon and includes analysis of cases from around the world, comparisons with militancy in other religions, and their causes and consequences. The sociological concepts and theories examined in the book include those associated with social closure, social movements, nationalism, risk, fear and ‘de-civilising’. These are applied within three main themes; characteristics of militant Islam, multi-layered causes and the consequences of militancy, in particular Western reactions within the ‘war on terror’. Interrelationships between religious and secular behaviour, ‘terrorism’ and ‘counter-terrorism’, popular support and opposition are explored. Through the examination of examples from across Muslim societies and communities, the analysis challenges the popular tendency to concentrate upon ‘al-Qa’ida’ and the Middle East. This book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Political Science and International Relations, in particular those taking courses on Islam, religion, terrorism, political violence and related regional studies.

Political Islam Observed

Political Islam Observed PDF Author: Frederic Volpi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199327140
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book offers a framework for understanding the interaction between the academic disciplines "observing" contemporary political Islam and the individuals and communities being "observed" practising it. Volpi investigates how different disciplinary approaches in the social sciences explain and understand their "Islamic" subject matter, revealing how political Islam is a phenomenon that each academic discipline analyses using its own dominant paradigms. He offers a multidisciplinary account of political Islam based on the insights provided by postorientalism, international studies, sociology of religion, democratisation studies, multiculturalism studies, security studies, and globalisation studies. His book outlines the areas of convergence and the synergies between these approaches and highlights the gaps and misunderstanding that still exist between parallel narratives on Islamism.

The Mind of Jihad

The Mind of Jihad PDF Author: Laurent Murawiec
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521730631
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through multiple lines of communication. This book brings history, anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad that has declared war on the West and the world.

Islamism

Islamism PDF Author: Tarek Osman
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300197721
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
An incisive analysis of Islamist movements in the Middle East A political, social, and cultural battle is currently raging in the Middle East. On one side are the Islamists, those who believe Islam should be the region's primary identity. In opposition are nationalists, secularists, royal families, military establishments, and others who view Islamism as a serious threat to national security, historical identity, and a cohesive society. This provocative, vitally important work explores the development of the largest, most influential Islamic groups in the Middle East over the past century. Tarek Osman examines why political Islam managed to win successive elections and how Islamist groups in various nations have responded after ascending to power. He dissects the alliances that have formed among Islamist factions and against them, addressing the important issues of Islamism's compatibility with modernity, with the region's experiences in the twentieth century, and its impact on social contracts and minorities. He explains what Salafism means, its evolution, and connections to jihadist groups in the Middle East. Osman speculates on what the Islamists' prospects for the future will mean for the region and the rest of the world.

Mirrors of Destruction

Mirrors of Destruction PDF Author: Omer Bartov
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195077237
Category : Ethnicity
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
He then examines the pacifist reaction in interwar France to show how it contributed to a climate of collaboration with dictatorship and mass murder.

Journey into Europe

Journey into Europe PDF Author: Akbar Ahmed
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815727593
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 595

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Book Description
An unprecedented, richly, detailed, and clear-eyed exploration of Islam in European history and civilization Tensions over Islam were escalating in Europe even before 9/11. Since then, repeated episodes of terrorism together with the refugee crisis have dramatically increased the divide between the majority population and Muslim communities, pushing the debate well beyond concerns over language and female dress. Meanwhile, the parallel rise of right-wing, nationalist political parties throughout the continent, often espousing anti-Muslim rhetoric, has shaken the foundation of the European Union to its very core. Many Europeans see Islam as an alien, even barbaric force that threatens to overwhelm them and their societies. Muslims, by contrast, struggle to find a place in Europe in the face of increasing intolerance. In tandem, anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination cause many on the continent to feel unwelcome in their European homes. Akbar Ahmed, an internationally renowned Islamic scholar, traveled across Europe over the course of four years with his team of researchers and interviewed Muslims and non-Muslims from all walks of life to investigate questions of Islam, immigration, and identity. They spoke with some of Europe’s most prominent figures, including presidents and prime ministers, archbishops, chief rabbis, grand muftis, heads of right-wing parties, and everyday Europeans from a variety of backgrounds. Their findings reveal a story of the place of Islam in European history and civilization that is more interwoven and complex than the reader might imagine, while exposing both the misunderstandings and the opportunities for Europe and its Muslim communities to improve their relationship. Along with an analysis of what has gone wrong and why, this urgent study, the fourth in a quartet examining relations between the West and the Muslim world, features recommendations for promoting integration and pluralism in the twenty-first century.