Representing Jihad : the appearing and disappearing radical / Jacqueline O'Rourke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Rourke, Jacqueline.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jihad.

Islam--Western countries.

Islam.

Postcolonialism--Religious aspects.

Postcolonialism.

Western countries.

Physical Description:

x, 252 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Zed Books, 2012.

Summary:

The jihad has been at the centre of the West's securitization discourse for more than a decade. Theorists frequently use the jihadist as a discursive tool to further their neoliberal, military and market agendas, perpetuating massive gaps of understanding between the West, Muslims and jihadists themselves. They are helped by Muslim interlocutors, who all too often play the role of the 'good' Muslim explaining the motifs of the 'bad'.

Representing Jihad skulfully critiques the debate around the jihadist, arguing that Muslim theory and fiction have been commodified to cater to the needs of Western ideology. Examining the work of theorists such as Edward Said and Slavoj Zizek, novelists such as Don DeLillo and Orhan Pamuk, and jihadists such as Mohammed Siddique Khan and Osama bin Laden, O'Rourke explores some of the critical fault lines in postcolonial theory and literary analysis.

Timely and comprehensive, this book argues that the temptation to appropriate the figure of the jihadist offers fertile ground for a discussion about the limits of current theory. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The vanishing jihadist: bin Laden and the Arab revolutions 21

2 Constructing the 'bad' Muslim: jihad, Orientalism and the militarization of Muslim lands 48

3 Contextualizing 'bad' Muslims: jihad, globalization and anti-Orientalism 78

4 Ree(a)l jihadists: the media-tion of intentions 107

5 Recovering invisible traces: jihad and postcolonialism 141

6 Humanism and Islam: jihad and postsecularism 184.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781780322636

1780322631

9781780322629

1780322623

OCLC:

794816301