Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam

Description

A landmark study of the rise of Islamic extremism, Jihad follows the history and spread of this new political-religious phenomenon from its beginnings as a militant rebellion in the Middle East during the 1970s to its culmination in a devastating onslaught on the West in 2001. Gilles Kepel explains how their jihad - or 'Holy Struggle' - aimed to establish a global Islamic state based solely on a strict interpretation of the Qur'an clashes with the values of Western democracies. Kepel's exploration of Jihadism is informed by his journeys throughout the Muslim world to gather documents, interviews and archival material inaccessible to most scholars.

Gilles Kepel is one of the world's foremost experts on the current Middle East and is director of research at the CNRS in Paris, and Professor at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, France.

I read this in Pakistan, over a period of weeks shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Its sweep across the broad landscape of radical Sunni activism was a revelation. The book is one of the few genuinely rigorous academic overviews of the social and historical roots of the phenomenon of modern Muslim extremism ranging geographically from the far east to Europe, and chronologically from the 1960s onwards that also remains readable. Its primary thesis that violent Islamic militancy is in large part a response to the failure of political Islamist activism has stood the test of time. Kepel is famous in France but almost unknown outside. This is a shame. A classic. -- Jason Burke * The Guardian * Deeply researched, deeply measured and deeply instructive - the best survey available and likely to remain so -- Justin Wintle * Sunday Times * Kepel's work... spans the world of political Islam, from the assassination of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, to the establishment of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in Afghanistan. He has the knack of explaining how events in one part of the Islamic world have affected developments elsewhere -- Anton La Guardia * The Daily Telegraph * No-one else has attempted so bold an overview of the Islamist phenomenon. Of all the books on this subject, this is the most challenging and the most illuminating * The Economist * Simply excellent -- Malise Ruthven * Prospect *