Fury for God : the Islamist attack on America / Malise Ruthven.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruthven, Malise.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islamic fundamentalism.

Terrorism--United States.

Terrorism.

United States.

Middle East--Foreign relations.

Middle East.

International relations.

United States--Foreign relations--Islamic countries.

Islamic countries.

Physical Description:

xxii, 324 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Granta Books, 2002.

Summary:

In A Fury for God, Malise Ruthven, a renowned scholar of Islamic history and Middle Eastern affairs, traces the religious and intellectual background behind the terrorist attacks on the United States. They were carried out, he argues, by men steeped in "Islamist" ideology: an amalgam of traditional Islamic concepts such as "jihad" and extremist ideas adapted from European leftism, fascism and anarchism. Ruthven investigates the hijackers' motives, particularly those of their leader, Mohammed Atta -- a figure troubled, like many of his contemporaries, by the clash between Islamic and Western values, including unresolved conflicts over gender and sexuality. It would be a mistake, Ruthven insists, to treat these men as medieval fanatics: their attitude to modernity is dangerous and ambivalent.

In a challenging analysis, the author exposes the crucial importance of the Saudi Arabian connection: it is an authoritarian regime responsible for the massive sponsorship of "fundamentalism"; the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, head of al-Qa'ida; and the home of fifteen of the hijackers. At the same time, Saudi Arabia remains America's closest ally in the Arab world, armed and tolerated for its oil. Though Ruthven rejects the thesis that the Western and Islamic worlds are heading inevitably for a clash between "civilizations," he concludes by suggesting that if left unchecked, pressures from religious fundamentalists (both Christian and Jewish) in the United States and Israel, added to the religious forces at work in the Muslim world, might well conspire to produce just such an outcome.

Contents:

1 September 11th 1

2 Jihad 44

3 The Aesthetics of Martyrdom 72

4 A Fury for God 99

5 Cultural Schizophrenia 134

6 The Seeds of Terror 169

7 Jihad in America 201

8 A Clash of Civilizations? 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1862075409

OCLC:

48836908