Jihad And The West

In a bright and brisk narrative, Paul Fregosi presents the engrossing factual account of the immense and little-known Islamic military invasions of Europe, and the major players who led them, beginning around 660 C.E. Photo insert.

The virulent new brand of Islamic extremism threatening the West In November 2015, ISIS terrorists massacred scores of people in Paris with coordinated attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, cafés and restaurants, and the national sports stadium. On Bastille Day in 2016, an ISIS sympathizer drove a truck into crowds of vacationers at the beaches of Nice, and two weeks later an elderly French priest was murdered during morning Mass by two ISIS militants. Here is Gilles Kepel's explosive account of the radicalization of a segment of Muslim youth that led to those attacks—and of the failure of governments in France and across Europe to address it. It is a book everyone in the West must read. Terror in France shows how these atrocities represent a paroxysm of violence that has long been building. The turning point was in 2005, when the worst riots in modern French history erupted in the poor, largely Muslim suburbs of Paris after the accidental deaths of two boys who had been running from the police. The unrest—or "French intifada"—crystallized a new consciousness among young French Muslims. Some have fallen prey to the allure of "war of civilizations" rhetoric in ways never imagined by their parents and grandparents. This is the highly anticipated English edition of Kepel's sensational French bestseller, first published shortly after the Paris attacks. Now fully updated to reflect the latest developments and featuring a new introduction by the author, Terror in France reveals the truth about a virulent new wave of jihadism that has Europe as its main target. Its aim is to divide European societies from within by instilling fear, provoking backlash, and achieving the ISIS dream—shared by Europe's Far Right—of separating Europe's growing Muslim minority community from the rest of its citizens.

Introduction -- The Age of revolutions and the Atlantic World -- The origins of jihād in West Africa -- The jihād of Ô̂uthman dan Fodio in the central Bilād al-Sūdān -- The economic impact of jihād in West Africa -- Jihād and the slave trade -- The repercussions of jihād in the Americas -- Sokoto, the jihād states, and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade -- Empowering history : trajectories across the cultural and religious divide -- Appendix: Population estimates for the Sokoto caliphate, ca. 1905/15

This book tells the story of how Al Qaeda grew in the West. In forensic and compelling detail, Jytte Klausen traces how Islamist revolutionaries exiled in Europe and North America in the 1990s helped create and control one of the world's most impactful terrorist movements--and how, after the near-obliteration of the organization during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, they helped build it again. She shows how the diffusion of Islamist terrorism to Europe and North America has been driven, not by local grievances of Western Muslims, but by the strategic priorities of the international Salafi-jihadist revolutionary movement. That movement has adapted to Western repertoires of protest: agitating for armed insurrection and religious revivalism in the name of a warped version of Islam. The jihadists-Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, and their many affiliates and associates--also proved to be amazingly resilient. Again and again, the movement recovered from major setbacks. Appealing to disaffected Muslims of immigrant origin and alienated converts to Islam, Jihadist groups continue to recruit new adherents in Europe and North America, street-side in neighborhoods, in jails, and online through increasingly clandestine platforms. Taking a comparative and historical approach, deploying cutting-edge analytical tools, and drawing on her unparalleled database of up to 6,500 Western jihadist extremists and their networks, Klausen has produced the most comprehensive account yet of the origins of Western jihadism and its role in the global movement.

In "Onward Muslim Soldiers," the author of "Islam Unveiled" reveals why the threat of violent jihad is growing daily, despite America's recent victory in Iraq. Spencer uncovers the cause of global violence as he goes straight to Muslim sources

Militant Salafism is one of the most significant movements in politics today. Unfortunately its significance has not been matched by understanding. To begin to address this knowledge deficit this book argues that, rather than the largely unhelpful pursuit of individual 'root causes' offered in much of the literature, we would be better served by looking at the factors that have enabled and facilitated a particular political imaginary. That political imaginary is one that allows individuals to conceive of themselves as integral members of a global battle waged between the forces of Islam and the West, something that lies at the heart of militant Salafism. Frazer Egerton shows how the ubiquity of modern media and the prevalence of movement have allowed for a transformation of existing beliefs into an ideology supportive of militant Salafism against the West amongst Western Muslims.

John H. Hanson's pathbreaking study revises late-nineteenth-century colonialist assumptions about a West African Muslim social movement. Using indigenous Arabic manuscripts, travel narratives, and oral materials, Hanson assesses the meaning of a series of revolts against Islamic authority. The book investigates three political crises that took place at Nioro, a town in the region of Karta in the upper Senegal River valley, conquered during a military jihad or "holy war" by Shaykh Umar Tal. Although Umar and his successors steadfastly promoted jihad, Futanke colonists, defying their leaders, opted to remain settled on the lands they had seized; instead of going to war, the colonists devoted themselves to production of foodstuffs for sale in an increasingly vital regional economy. Incisive analysis of charismatic authority and its limits, as demonstrated by Umar and his son Amadu Sheku, illuminates patterns in the unfolding relations between leaders and followers.

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.