segunda-feira, 30 de dezembro de 2024

Jihad and Death The Global Appeal of Islamic State by Olivier Roy

 


Jihad and Death

The Global Appeal of Islamic State

Olivier Roy

Part of the CERI/Sciences Po. Series

https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/jihad-and-death/

 

Everything you need to know about how Islamic State attracts new followers, by a world-renowned sociologist of Islam.

 

How has ISIS been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to Islam, and seemingly countless supporters online? In this compelling intervention into the debate about ISIS’ origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist, Olivier Roy, argues that while terrorism and jihadism are familiar phenomena, the deliberate pursuit of death has produced a new kind of radical violence. In other words, we’re facing not a radicalization of Islam, but the Islamization of radicalism.

 

Jihad and Death is a concise dissection of the highly sophisticated narrative mobilised by ISIS: the myth of the Caliphate recast into a modern story of heroism and nihilism. According to Roy, this very contemporary aesthetic of violence is less rooted in the history of Islamic thought than it is entrenched in a youth culture that has turned global and violent.

 

Reviews

‘A bravura outing, pithy, prosecutorial, and informed … Roy writes with verve … magisterial.’ — The Guardian

 

‘Roy’s brisk work is full of imaginative leaps, and that is what gives it value. There has been too much circular writing about the “mind of the terrorist”, too many assumptions about their supposed brainwashing. By examining the significance of death for these jihadists, he can dismantle their manifold confusions.’ — The Times

 

‘Olivier Roy is one of the most interestingly provocative thinkers on modern jihadism. In this excellent short book, the French academic reiterates his argument that we are seeing not “the radicalisation of Islam but the Islamisation of radicalism.”’ — Prospect

 

‘Mr Roy, a French authority on Islamism, regards IS as the monstrously inflated product of its own propaganda; it is, he says, first and foremost a death cult …. He believes IS’s strongest weapon is people’s fear of it … All this is a stimulating counterblast to much conventional thinking.’ — The Economist

 

‘Provocative … even brilliant.’ — The National

Sem comentários: