The Mind of Jihad

The Mind of Jihad PDF Author: Laurent Murawiec
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139474626
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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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.

The Mind of Jihad

The Mind of Jihad PDF Author: Laurent Murawiec
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139474626
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Get Book Here

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.

Jihad and Death

Jihad and Death PDF Author: Olivier Roy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849046980
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Islamic State has replaced Al Qaeda as the great global threat of the twenty-first century, the bogeyman we have all come to fear. But Daesh started as a local movement, rooted in the resentment of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and Syria. It is they who have lost most in the geo-strategic shift in the balance of power in the region over the last thirty years, as Iranian-backed Shias have mobilised politically and advanced on the social and economic fronts. How has Islamic State been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and to attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to Islam, and seemingly countless supporters online? In this compelling intervention into the debate about Islamic State's origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist of religion, Olivier Roy, argues that the group mobilised a highly sophisticated narrative, reviving the myth of the Caliphate and recasting it into a modern story of heroism, death and nihilism, using a very contemporary aesthetic of violence, well entrenched amid a youth culture that has turned global and violent.

The Legacy of Jihad

The Legacy of Jihad PDF Author: Andrew G. Bostom, M.D.
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161592017X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 773

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Book Description
This book reveals how, for well over a millennium and across three continents - Asia, Africa, and Europe - non-Muslims who were vanquished by jihad wars became forced tributaries (called dhimmi in Arabic) in lieu of being slain. Under the dhimmi religious caste system, non-Muslims were subjected to legal and financial oppression, as well as social isolation. Extensive primary and secondary source materials, many translated here for the first time into English, are presented, making clear that jihad conquests were brutal, imperialist advances, which spurred waves of Muslims to expropriate a vast expanse of lands and subdue millions of indigenous peoples. Finally, the book examines how jihad war, as a permanent and uniquely Islamic institution, ultimately regulates the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims to this day. Scholars, educators, and interested lay readers will find this collection an invaluable resource.

Landscapes of the Jihad

Landscapes of the Jihad PDF Author: Faisal Devji
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801459788
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
What are the motives behind Osama bin Laden's and Al-Qaeda's jihad against America and the West? Innumerable attempts have been made in recent years to explain that mysterious worldview. In Landscapes of the Jihad, Faisal Devji focuses on the ethical content of this jihad as opposed to its purported political intent. Al-Qaeda differs radically from such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah, which aim to establish fundamentalist Islamic states. In fact, Devji contends, Al-Qaeda, with its decentralized structure and emphasis on moral rather than political action, actually has more in common with multinational corporations, antiglobalization activists, and environmentalist and social justice organizations. Bin Laden and his lieutenants view their cause as a response to the oppressive conditions faced by the Muslim world rather than an Islamist attempt to build states.Al-Qaeda culls diverse symbols and fragments from Islam's past in order to legitimize its global war against the "metaphysical evil" emanating from the West. The most salient example of this assemblage, Devji argues, is the concept of jihad itself, which Al-Qaeda defines as an "individual duty" incumbent on all Muslims, like prayer. Although medieval Islamic thought provides precedent for this interpretation, Al-Qaeda has deftly separated the stipulation from its institutional moorings and turned jihad into a weapon of spiritual conflict. Al-Qaeda and its jihad, Devji suggests, are only the most visible manifestations of wider changes in the Muslim world. Such changes include the fragmentation of traditional as well as fundamentalist forms of authority. In the author's view, Al-Qaeda represents a new way of organizing Muslim belief and practice within a global landscape and does not require ideological or institutional unity.Offering a compelling explanation for the central purpose of Al-Qaeda's jihad against the West, the meaning of its strategies and tactics, and its moral and aesthetic dimensions, Landscapes of the Jihad is at once a sophisticated work of historical and cultural analysis and an invaluable guide to the world's most prominent terrorist movement.

Inside the Jihad

Inside the Jihad PDF Author: Omar Nasiri
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465003729
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
From Europe's burgeoning terrorist underground, to the training camps of Afghanistan, to the radical mosques of London, this is a unique and chilling insider's story of the rise of Al Qaeda and the intelligence services that struggle to contain it. Between 1994 and 2000, Omar Nasiri worked as a secret agent for Europe's top foreign intelligence services -- including France's DGSE (Direction Gérale de la Séritéxtéeure), and Britain's MI5 and MI6. From the netherworld of Islamist cells in Belgium, to the training camps of Afghanistan, to the radical mosques of London, he risked his life to defeat the emerging global network that the West would come to know as Al Qaeda. Now, for the first time, Nasiri shares the story of his life -- a life balanced precariously between the world of Islamic jihadists and the spies who pursue them. As an Arab and a Muslim, he was able to infiltrate the rigidly controlled Afghan training camps, where he encountered men who would later be known as the most-wanted terrorists on earth, going so far as to form a sleeper cell in Europe with Al Qaeda's top recruiter in Pakistan and London's radical cleric Abu Qatada. A detailed portrait of a complex man who fought on both sides,Inside the Jihad is a terrifying, suspenseful look at an organization that continues to be a global threat.

Beyond Jihad

Beyond Jihad PDF Author: Lamin O. Sanneh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199351619
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Over the course of the last 1400 years, Islam has grown from a small band of followers on the Arabian peninsula into a global religion of over a billion believers. How did this happen? The usual answer is that Islam spread by the sword-believers waged jihad against rival tribes and kingdoms and forced them to convert. Lamin Sanneh argues that this is far from the whole story. Beyond Jihad examines the origin and evolution of the African pacifist tradition in Islam, beginning with an inquiry into the faith's origins and expansion in North Africa and its transmission across trans-Saharan trade routes to West Africa. The book focuses on the ways in which, without jihad, the religion spread and took hold, and what that tells us about the nature of religious and social change. At the heart of this process were clerics who used religious and legal scholarship to promote Islam. Once this clerical class emerged, it offered continuity and stability in the midst of political changes and cultural shifts, helping to inhibit the spread of radicalism, and subduing the urge to wage jihad. With its policy of religious and inter-ethnic accommodation, this pacifist tradition took Islam beyond traditional trade routes and kingdoms into remote districts of the Mali Empire, instilling a patient, Sufi-inspired, and jihad-negating impulse into religious life and practice. Islam was successful in Africa, Sanneh argues, not because of military might but because it was made African by Africans who adapted it to a variety of contexts.

The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam

The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam PDF Author: Bat Yeʼor
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
ISBN: 0838636888
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
In two waves of Islamic expansion the Christian and Jewish populations of the Mediterranean regions and Mesopotamia, who had developed the most prestigious civilizations of the time, were conquered by jihad. Millions of Christians from Spain, Egypt, Syria, Greece, and Armenia; Latins and Slavs from southern and central Europe; as well as Jews were henceforth governed by the shari'a (Islamic law).

Why We Want to Kill You

Why We Want to Kill You PDF Author: Walid Shoebat
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
A self-confessed former Islamic terrorist reveals why he and his former colleagues commit acts of violence and genocide, and are eager for the next opportunity, in a book that also discusses how to defeat terrorism.

American Jihad

American Jihad PDF Author: Steven Emerson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743477502
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Leading the second wave of post 9/11 terrorist books, American Jihad reveals that America is rampant with Islamic terrorist networks and sleeper cells and Emerson, the expert on them, explains just how close they are to each of us.

Now They Call Me Infidel

Now They Call Me Infidel PDF Author: Nonie Darwish
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781595230317
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
A Cairo-raised daughter of an Egyptian military officer describes how she was raised to hate Americans and Jewish people and submit to dictatorship, her decision to relocate to America, and her efforts to promote peace and tolerance at the risk of her own safety.