Jihadism in Europe

Jihadism in Europe
Author: Farhad Khosrokhavar
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2021
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0197564968

"European jihadism is a multi-faceted social phenomenon. It is not only linked to the extremist behaviour of a limited group, but also to a broader crisis, including the lack of utopia and loss of meaning among the middle classes, and the humiliation and denial of citizenship among disaffiliated young people in poor districts all over Western Europe. Fundamentally, it is grounded IN AN UNBRIDLED AND MODERN IMAGINATION, IN AN UNEASY RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND ECONOMIC REALITY. THAT IMAGINATION IS DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK AMONG YOUNG WOMEN AND THEIR LONGING FOR ANOTHER FAMILY MODEL, ADOLESCENTS AND THEIR DESIRE TO BECOME ADULTS AND TO OVERCOME THE FAMILY CRISIS, PEOPLE WITH MENTAL PROBLEMS FOR WHOM JIHAD WAS A CATHARSIS, YOUNG CONVERTS WHO SOUGHT TO REALIZE THEIR DREAM OF A DIFFERENT RELIGION, IN CONTRAST WITH A DISENCHANTED SECULAR EUROPE. The family and its crisis, in many ways, played a role in promoting jihadism, particularly in families of immigrant origin whose relationship to patriarchy was different from that of the mainstream society in Europe. Among middle class families, the crisis of authority was a key factor for the departure of middle-class youth. At the urban level, a large proportion of jihadists come from poor and ethnically segregated districts with high levels of social deviance and the stigma attached to them. Within these poor districts, a specific subculture was built up (we call it the Slum Culture), which influenced young people and imposed on them a lifestyle likely to combine resentment and deviance with humiliation and denial of citizenship in a difficult relationship with mainstream society. BUT JIHADISM WAS ALSO AN EXPRESSION OF THE LOSS OF HOPE IN THE FUTURE IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD AMONG MIDDLE CLASS AND LOWER-CLASS YOUTH. THE CALIPHATE IN SYRIA PROMISED THE EARTH TO THESE YOUNG PEOPLE DURING ITS ASCENT BETWEEN 2014-2015 AND EVEN AFTER, THIS TIME AS A PROPHET OF A GLOOMY END TIMES"--

Family and Jihadism

Family and Jihadism
Author: Jérôme Ferret
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2021-12-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000516687

This volume explores the paramount importance of family to jihadism in France, Spain and in Europe more generally. In France, special focus is given to the Mohammed Merah paradigmatic case study in the Toulouse region. In Spain, attention is given to the North and to Catalonia. With attention to both the concrete family - often in crisis - and the imaginary family invented by radicalized youth to substitute, this book shows the fundamental need among many jihadists to reconstitute the family, whether in the form of a clan or the imagined Caliphate (or neo-Ummah): a form of shared existence that offers escape from societies in which jihadists feel ill-at-ease. Demonstrating the failure of an emphasis on the individual actor to capture the meaning of jihadism, Family and Jihadism reveals the fundamental importance to our understanding of jihadist activity of the family (in an extended anthropological sense) - real or imagined - into which the individual is inserted. A study of the crisis of family and the re-creation of a new, enlarged family in the lives of young jihadists, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, politics and security studies with interests in radicalisation, political violence, social movements and religious violence.

I Was Told to Come Alone

I Was Told to Come Alone
Author: Souad Mekhennet
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2017-06-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 162779896X

“I was told to come alone. I was not to carry any identification, and would have to leave my cell phone, audio recorder, watch, and purse at my hotel. . . .” For her whole life, Souad Mekhennet, a reporter for The Washington Post who was born and educated in Germany, has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing – Muslim and Western. She has also sought to provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and the Iraqi neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence. In her travels across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents her chilling run-ins with various intelligence services and shows why the Arab Spring never lived up to its promise. She then returns to Europe, first in London, where she uncovers the identity of the notorious ISIS executioner “Jihadi John,” and then in France, Belgium, and her native Germany, where terror has come to the heart of Western civilization. Mekhennet’s background has given her unique access to some of the world’s most wanted men, who generally refuse to speak to Western journalists. She is not afraid to face personal danger to reach out to individuals in the inner circles of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates; when she is told to come alone to an interview, she never knows what awaits at her destination. Souad Mekhennet is an ideal guide to introduce us to the human beings behind the ominous headlines, as she shares her transformative journey with us. Hers is a story you will not soon forget.

Children of Jihad

Children of Jihad
Author: Jared Cohen
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2007-10-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1101216964

Defying foreign government orders and interviewing terrorists face to face, a young American tours hostile lands to learn about Middle Eastern youth, and uncovers a subculture that defies every stereotype. In 2004, Jared Cohen embarked on the first of a series of incredible journeys to the Middle East in an effort to understand the spread of radical Islamist violence among Muslim youth. The result is Children of Jihad, a portrait of paradox that probes much deeper than any journalist or pundit ever could. Chosen as one of Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2007, Cohen's account begins in Lebanon, where he interviews Hezbollah members at, of all places, a McDonald's. In Iran, he defies government threats and sneaks into underground parties, where bootleg liquor, Western music, and the Internet are all easy to access. His risky itinerary also takes him to a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, borderlands in Syria, the insurgency hotbed of Mosul, and other front-line locales. At each turn, he observes a culture at an uncanny crossroads. Gripping and daring, Children of Jihad shows us the future through the eyes of those who are shaping it.

Jihad and Death

Jihad and Death
Author: Olivier Roy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 1849046980

Islamic State has replaced Al Qaeda as the great global threat of the twenty-first century, the bogeyman we have all come to fear. But Daesh started as a local movement, rooted in the resentment of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and Syria. It is they who have lost most in the geo-strategic shift in the balance of power in the region over the last thirty years, as Iranian-backed Shias have mobilised politically and advanced on the social and economic fronts. How has Islamic State been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and to attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to Islam, and seemingly countless supporters online? In this compelling intervention into the debate about Islamic State's origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist of religion, Olivier Roy, argues that the group mobilised a highly sophisticated narrative, reviving the myth of the Caliphate and recasting it into a modern story of heroism, death and nihilism, using a very contemporary aesthetic of violence, well entrenched amid a youth culture that has turned global and violent.

Defying Jihad

Defying Jihad
Author: Esther Ahmad
Publisher: NavPress
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2019-06-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 149642591X

If you truly love Allah, you will die for him. Your death will mean much reward for you and your family in heaven. Only death will prove your love. It was the final test. A chance to win not only the love of Allah, but the love of her father—something she had never been able to earn. Esther took a deep breath and raised her hand in the air. At the age of eighteen, she had just volunteered to become a suicide bomber. Defying Jihad is the true story of a girl growing up under radical Islamic rule, trained to believe her ultimate purpose was to serve Allah by dying as a jihadist. But two nights before she was to leave forever, she had a dream . . . one that would change the course of her destiny. Against all odds, Esther became a follower of Jesus—even though leaving Islam meant her death sentence. But rather than kill her immediately, Esther’s furious father challenged her to a series of public debates with Muslim scholars: the Bible versus the Quran. If Esther won, she might yet survive. But if the Muslim clerics won, Esther must renounce her Christian faith. For an entire month—if she lived that long—Esther would be brought before the mob daily to defend her newfound faith. Would God give her the words to argue against Muslim leaders, former friends, and even her own family? Defying Jihad is an amazing story of a woman prepared to surrender all for Jesus—and whose life transformed from terror to overwhelming love.

Global Jihadism

Global Jihadism
Author: Jarret M. Brachman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2008-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134055404

Global Jihadism exposes the core doctrine and strategy of today’s global Jihadist movement. The first half of the book explores the ideas upon which groups such as Al Qaeda are built, including the concepts of Jihad, al-Wala wal-Bara, Takfir and Tawhid. Jarret Brachman exposes a genre of Jihadist strategic scholarship that has been virtually ignored in the West and helps to situate it within the broader Salafist religious movement. The second half explores the thinking and activities of Al Qaeda’s propaganda machine, explaining its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. It includes case studies on the rise and fall of global Jihadist terrorism in Saudi Arabia post-9/11, and highlights the explosive results of bringing theory to bear on practice in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. The book concludes by providing innovative strategies for combating the global Jihadist ideology.

Journey of the Jihadist

Journey of the Jihadist
Author: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780156031707

"Middle Eastern expert and media commentator Gerges takes us into the mindset of the jihadi, or holy warrior, that lies behind so many front-page headlines yet remains nearly impenetrable. Even before the 9/11 attacks, Gerges had gone in search of those whose lives were devoted to this crusade of hatred, first against their own secular governments, then against the West and the United States in particular. He talked extensively with Kamal al-Said Habib, a founder of the Jihadist Movement. Using Habib's life story, as well as the stories of dozens of other Islamic fundamentalists, Gerges's book puts a human face to events in the Middle East over the last thirty years, from the civil war in Lebanon to the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks in London. Behind the jihadism of Habib and others, a battle is being waged for the soul of Islam itself."--Résumé de l'éditeur.

Unholy War

Unholy War
Author: John L. Esposito
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195168860

Of the intellectual underpinnings of the more radical elements of contemporary Islam.

Salafi-jihadism

Salafi-jihadism
Author: Shiraz Maher
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2016
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190651121

Concise introduction to salafi-jihadism from its origins in the Hindu Kush to insurgencies in the 1990s and beyond