Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
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- Author: Kepel Gilles
- Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
- ISBN: 0674010906
- Availability: Available
- Condition: Very good
- Code: 84963
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Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
Kepel Gilles
Summary
Gilles Kepel: Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
The late twentieth century witnessed the emergence of an unexpected and extraordinary phenomenon: Islamist political movements. Beginning in the early 1970s, militants rose up against ruling regimes throughout the Muslim world and intensified political conflicts everywhere. Their jihad, or "holy struggle", aimed to establish a global Islamic state based solely on a strict interpretation of the Koran. The religious ideology proved a cohesive force, gathering followers ranging from students and young urban poor to middle-class professionals.
After an initial triumph with the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the movement waged a jihad against the USSR in Afghanistan, proclaiming for the first time a doctrine of extreme violence. By the end of the 1990s, the failure to take political power elsewhere led to a split: a movement of moderate forces developed new concepts of "Muslim democracy", while extremists resorted to large-scale terrorist attacks around the world.
Jihad is the first comprehensive, in-depth attempt to trace the history and geography of this disturbing political-religious phenomenon. Fluent in Arabic, Gilles Kepel has traveled throughout the Muslim world collecting documents, interviews and archival materials unavailable to most scholars to give us a comprehensive understanding of the scope of Islamist movements, their past and their present. As we face the threat of terrorism to our lives and freedoms, Kepel helps us understand the sinister reality of jihad today.
Additional information
- Author: Kepel Gilles
- Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard U...
- Year of publication:2000
- Place of publication:Cambridge
- Pages:454
- Dimensions:15.5x23.5 cm
- Script:Latin script
- Condition:Very good
- Binding:Softcover
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