The Mind of Jihad

Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-521-88393-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 350 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 797 g

This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through multiple lines of communication. This book brings history, anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad that has declared war on the West and the world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Murawiec, Laurent

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Theokratische und religiöse Ideologien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Terrorismus, Religiöser Fundamentalismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religiöser Fundamentalismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. 'We love death'; 2. 'An elite of amoral supermen'; 3. The Gnostic Mahdi; 4. Manichean tribalism; 5. The odd pedigree of modern jihad; 6. The mutated virus: 'Islamic Revolution'; 7. Jihad as terror.

Über Autor(innen)

Murawiec, Laurent
Laurent Murawiec taught philosophy, was a foreign correspondent, co-founded and managed a consulting company for geopolitical and geoeconomic affairs, and taught at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales. He has served as a consultant for the French Ministry of Defense and as a Senior International Policy Analyst with the RAND Corporation and is currently a senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute. He is the author of La Guerre au XXIè Siècle (2000), L'Esprit des Nations: Cultures et Géopolitique (2002), La Guerre d'Après (2003), and Vulnerabilities in the Chinese Way of War (2004), as well as an acclaimed French translation of Clausewitz's On War (1999).