Beyond Terror And Martyrdom

Author : Gilles Kepel
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674039556
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Beyond Terror and Martyrdom written by Gilles Kepel and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2001, two dominant worldviews have clashed in the global arena: a neoconservative nightmare of an insidious Islamic terrorist threat to civilized life, and a jihadist myth of martyrdom through the slaughter of infidels. Across the airwaves and on the ground, an ill-defined and uncontrollable war has raged between these two opposing scenarios. Deadly images and threats—from the televised beheading of Western hostages to graphic pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib, from the destruction wrought by suicide bombers in London and Madrid to civilian deaths at the hands of American occupation forces in Iraq—have polarized populations on both sides of this divide. Yet, as the noted Middle East scholar and commentator Gilles Kepel demonstrates, President Bush’s War on Terror masks a complex political agenda in the Middle East—enforcing democracy, accessing Iraqi oil, securing Israel, and seeking regime change in Iran. Osama bin Laden’s call for martyrs to rise up against the apostate and hasten the dawn of a universal Islamic state papers over a fractured, fragmented Islamic world that is waging war against itself. Beyond Terror and Martyrdom sounds the alarm to the West and to Islam that both of these exhausted narratives are bankrupt—neither productive of democratic change in the Middle East nor of unity in Islam. Kepel urges us to escape the ideological quagmire of terrorism and martyrdom and explore the terms of a new and constructive dialogue between Islam and the West, one for which Europe, with its expanding and restless Muslim populations, may be the proving ground.

Author : Dominic Janes
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199376514
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martyrdom and Terrorism written by Dominic Janes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, terrorism has become closely associated with martyrdom in the minds of many terrorists and in the view of nations around the world. In Islam, martyrdom is mostly conceived as "bearing witness" to faith and God. Martyrdom is also central to the Christian tradition, not only in the form of Christ's Passion or saints faced with persecution and death, but in the duty to lead a good and charitable life. In both religions, the association of religious martyrdom with political terror has a long and difficult history. The essays of this volume illuminate this history--following, for example, Christian martyrdom from its origins in the Roman world, to the experience of the deaths of "terrorist" leaders of the French Revolution, to parallels in the contemporary world--and explore historical parallels among Islamic, Christian, and secular traditions. Featuring essays from eminent scholars in a wide range of disciplines, Martyrdom and Terrorism provides a timely comparative history of the practices and discourses of terrorism and martyrdom from antiquity to the twenty-first century.

Author : Adam Lankford
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0230342132
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Myth of Martyrdom written by Adam Lankford and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adam Lankford looks at the motivation of suicide bombers and other rampage killers.

Author : Jeffrey W Lewis
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612510973
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Business of Martyrdom written by Jeffrey W Lewis and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2012-04-15 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Business of Martyrdom is the only comprehensive history of suicide bombing from its origins in Imperial Russia to the present day. It makes use of a framework from the history and philosophy of technology to explain the diffusion and evolution of suicide bombing over the past several decades. It is primarily a work of synthesis meant to reach a broad audience and endeavors to integrate as much of the recent scholarly literature as possible, including reconciling explanatory mechanisms that seem to be at odds with one another. In addition, this book is able to draw on very recent changes in suicide bombing in the years 2008-2010 that allow it to have a slightly different perspective than earlier studies. For the first time the global number of suicide attacks has declined significantly for three years in a row. This book therefore has the advantage of addressing the phenomenon of suicide bombing as a bounded phenomenon with limits to its growth and diffusion. To this point the impression that suicide bombers are the smartest bombs yet created has been widespread but confined to the area of metaphor. Drawing well-established ideas from the history of technology, The Business of Martyrdom argues that the metaphor should be taken literally. Suicide bombing is a technology that has been invented and re-invented at different times in different areas but always for the same purpose: resolving a mismatch in military capabilities between antagonists by utilizing the available cultural and human resources. Over the past several years, analysts have produced a large number of monographs and articles examining suicide bombing. The best contributions in this new and growing literature have shed considerable light on the complexity of suicide bombing in practice, particularly regarding the structure of the organizations that deploy suicide bombers and the relationships between these organizations and the recruits whom they utilize in their attacks. Nevertheless, nagging inconsistencies and questions remain. These inconsistencies can be explained by examining suicide bombing as a technological system that integrates human beings, cultures, and devices and directs them toward specific ends. Such an analysis requires that neither the individual bombers nor their sponsoring organizations be the basic unit of discussion. Instead, the bombers must be understood as components within a much larger system that has been shaped by a host of social, cultural, and operational constraints throughout its existence. Integrating insights from the historical analysis of other technological systems with the recent literature specifically devoted to suicide bombing therefore allows The Business of Martyrdom to develop a fuller understanding of suicide bombing as a unified yet diverse phenomenon.

Author : William Bush
Publisher : ICS Publications
ISBN 13 : 1939272165
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book To Quell the Terror: The Mystery of the Vocation of the Sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne Guillotined July 17, 1794 written by William Bush and published by ICS Publications. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book recounts the dramatic true story of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, martyred during the French Revolution's "Great Terror," and known to the world through their fictional representation in Gertrud von Le Fort's Song at the Scaffold and Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. At the height of the French Revolution's "Great Terror," a community of sixteen Carmelite nuns from Compiègne offered their lives to restore peace to the church and to France. Ten days after their deaths by the guillotine, Robespierre fell, and with his execution on the same scaffold the Reign of Terror effectively ended. Had God thus accepted and used the Carmelites' generous self-gift? Through Gertrud von Le Fort's modern novella, Song at the Scaffold, and Francis Poulenc's famed opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites, (with its libretto by Georges Bernanos), modern audiences around the world have become captivated by the mysterious destiny of these Compiègne martyrs, Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine and her companions. Now, for the first time in English, William Bush explores at length the facts behind the fictional representations, and reflects on their spiritual significance. Based on years of research, this book recounts in lively detail virtually all that is known of the life and background of each of the martyrs, as well as the troubled times in which they lived. The Compiègne Carmelites, sustained by their remarkable prioress, emerge as distinct individuals, struggling as Christians to understand and respond to an awesome calling, relying not on their own strength but on the mercy of God and the guiding hand of Providence. The book includes an index and 15 photos.

Author : Joyce M. Davis
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780756785949
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martyrs written by Joyce M. Davis and published by . This book was released on 2005-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, ongoing violence in the Middle East: Why do people engage in such cruelty, what drives them, & can they even be understood? This book begins to answer such questions through chilling interviews with terrorist trainers, with the families of suicide bombers, fighters & fanatics, & with Muslim scholars offering differing opinions on the legitimacy of violence & especially shuhada -- martyrdom -- in Islam. This book provides provocative & troubling insights into the zealotry that leads to the targeting of innocents, the endless cycle of revenge, & the despair that besets the Middle East. These unsettling perspectives are crucial to understanding, though not accepting, the fury at & resentment of the U.S.

Author : John Wolffe
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350019267
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sacred and Secular Martyrdom in Britain and Ireland since 1914 written by John Wolffe and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During and immediately after the First World War, there was a merging of Christian and nationalist traditions of martyrdom, expressed in the design of war cemeteries and war memorials, and the state funeral of the Unknown Warrior in 1920. John Wolffe explores the subsequent development of these traditions of 'sacred' and 'secular' martyrdom, analysing the ways in which they operated - sometimes in parallel, sometimes merged together and sometimes in conflict with each other. Particular topics explored include the Protestant commemoration of Marian and missionary martyrs, and the Roman Catholic campaign for the canonization of the 'saints and martyrs of England'. Secular martyrdom is discussed in relation to military conflicts especially the Second World War and the Falklands. In Ireland there was a particularly persistent merging of sacred and secular martyrdom in the wake of the Easter Rising of 1916 although by the time of the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' in the later twentieth-century these traditions diverged. In covering these themes, the book also offers historical and comparative context for understanding present-day acts of martyrdom in the form of suicide attacks.

Author : Jolyon Mitchell
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199585237
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Martyrdom: A Very Short Introduction written by Jolyon Mitchell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martyrdom is a controversial topic, with a long history of provoking fierce debate. In this Very Short Introduction Jolyon Mitchell provides a historical analysis to understand the contemporary debates surrounding martyrdom. Using examples from a variety of contexts around the world, he explores how it has evolved, and what it means today.

Author : Gilles Kepel
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674010901
Total Pages : 468 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jihad written by Gilles Kepel and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kepel has traveled throughout the Muslim world gathering documents, interviews, and archival materials, in order to give readers a comprehensive understanding of the scope of Islamist movements, their past, and their present. 7 maps.

Author : Onder Bakircioglu
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113409163X
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Islam and Warfare written by Onder Bakircioglu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of how Islamic law regulates the notions of just recourse to and just conduct in war has long been the topic of heated controversy, and is often subject to oversimplification in scholarship and journalism. This book traces the rationale for aggression within the Islamic tradition, and assesses the meaning and evolution of the contentious concept of jihad. The book reveals that there has never been a unified position on what Islamic warfare tangibly entails, due to the complexity of relevant sources and discordant historical dynamics that have shaped the contours of jihad. Onder Bakircioglu advocates a dynamic reading of Islamic law and military tradition; one which prioritises the demands of contemporary international relations and considers the meaning and application of jihad as contingent on the socio-political forces of each historical epoch. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of international law, Islamic law, war and security studies, and the law of armed conflict.