Description
Book SynopsisA provocative rethinking of the war on terror that exposes the dangers of Western blindness to colonial Middle Eastern history and breaks the deadlock of geopolitics and religious identity.
Trade Review"Burgat's book delivers the keys to the writings of Azzam, Zawahiri and bin Laden" Le Monde Diplomatique "Unlike his contemporaries, Burgat doesn't give in to the media-talk that surrounds us... With his immense historic and sociological background, he offers us a complete, panoramic view of that Arabic Other... Few know the Arab Muslim world better than Burgat." --Politis
Table of Contents
- Translator's Note and Acknowledgments
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The Identity Matrix of "Muslim-Speak"
- 2. From National Struggle to the Disillusionments of "Recolonization": The Triple Temporality of Islamism
- 3. The Islamist Field between National Specificity and Transnationalization
- 4. Red Sea Secrets or Islamism without Colonization
- 5. The Brothers and the Salafis: Between Modernization and Literalism, with or without Radicalization
- 6. Islamic Radicalization: Between Religious Sectarianism and Political Counterviolence
- 7. From Sayyid Qutb to Mohammed Atta: Sectarianism or Political Counterviolence?
- 8. From Fears Inherited to Fears Exploited: The War of Representations
- 9. Hard Power and Imposed Reform: The Illusions of the Western Response to Islamism
- Conclusion: Against Terrorism—the Absolute Weapon?
- Appendix: The Islamists as Seen by the West in 1992
- Notes
- Index
