Islamic Fundamentalism: Myths and Realities

After the resurgence of Islamic activism in recent decades , Islamic fundamentalist groups today seem set to maintain their dominant position across a range of Middle and Near Eastern regimes. In this book, a range of leading Middle East academics come together to challenge and correct theoretical and pratical misconceptions about Islamic movements. The result is a volume which questions the process of abstraction – which leads to the creation of the myth of extremism – and offers an account of Islamic fundamentalist thought and movements that places them within their international, regional and local context. In Part I the contributors examine the theoretical, philosophical and political foundations of fundamentalist discourses and the construction of fundamentalist ideologies; in additon they investigate the tools used to study Islamic movements. Part II provides detailed case studies of developments in Algeria, Lebanon, the Occupied Territories, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. These in-depth chapters analyse the causes of the fundamentalist movements’ successes and failures.

Ahmad S. Moussalli is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the American University of Beirut and Visiting Professor to the Carsten Niebuhr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. His previous publications include Radical Islamic Fundamentalism: The Ideological and Political Discourse of Sayyid Qutb.

Hardback • 248 mm x 171 mm • ISBN 9780863722325 • 354 pages • £35.00