The failure of political Islam / Olivier Roy ; translated by Carol Volk.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roy, Olivier, 1949-

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Standardized Title:

Echec de l'islam politique. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Islam and politics--Middle East.

Islam and politics.

Middle East.

Islam and politics--Africa, North.

North Africa.

Middle East--Politics and government--1979-.

Politics and government.

Africa, North--Politics and government.

Africa, North.

Political science.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xi, 238 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First Harvard University Press paperback edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1996.

Summary:

For many Westerners, ours seems to be the era of the "Islamic threat," with radical Muslims everywhere on the rise and on the march, remaking societies and altering the landscape of contemporary politics. In a powerful corrective to this view, the French political philosopher Olivier Roy presents an entirely different verdict: political Islam is a failure. Even if Islamic fundamentalists take power in countries like Algeria, they will be unable to reshape economics and politics and, in the name of "Islamic universalism," will express no more than nationalism or an even narrower agenda. Despite all the rhetoric about an "Islamic way," an "Islamic economy," and an "Islamic state," the realities of the Muslim world remain essentially unchanged.

Contents:

Islam and politics : from tradition to reformism

The concepts of Islamism

The sociology of Islamism

The impasses of Islamist ideology

Neofundamentalism : from the Muslim brotherhood to the Algerian fis

The Islamist new intellectuals

The geostrategy of Islamism : states and networks

The Islamic economy : between illusions and rhetoric

Afghanistan : jihad and traditional society

Iran : Shiism and revolution

The Shiite factor in Iran's foreign policy

Conclusion : tomorrow's gray areas.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-229) and index.

ISBN:

0674291417

9780674291416

OCLC:

37296293