Whatever Happened to the Islamists?: Salafis, Heavy Metal Muslims, and the Lure of Consumerist Islam (Columbia/Hurst) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231154267 ISBN 13: 9780231154260

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Islamism and political Islam might seem like contemporary phenomena, but the roots of both movements can be traced back more than a century. Nevertheless, the utopian beliefs of Islamism have been irrevocably changed by the processes of modernization, especially globalization, which have taken the philosophy in unmistakable new directions.

Through meticulous theoretical and ethnographic research, this collection maps the movements of current and former Islamists to determine what has become of political Islam. Islam continues to be a fresh and vital ideology to a new generation of militants, even though the channels through which it is expressed have changed. Jihad is often conducted electronically via Islamist email list-serves and Islamist activism has been personalized -- even domesticated -- through the production and consumption of political goods, such as Islamic soft drinks. Even the street protests that once characterized the Islamist struggle have now been eclipsed by Islamic rap concerts. By confronting these changes, this anthology highlights Islam's remarkable adaptation to modern influences and the ongoing revitalization of its utopian message.

About this title

About the Author:

Amel Boubekeur is research fellow and head of the Islam and Europe program at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels.

Olivier Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence. A world authority on political Islam in the Middle East and Central Asia, his critically acclaimed books are Secularism Confronts Islam, The Failure of Political Islam, The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, and, with Mariam Abou Zahab, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection.

Review:

Although recent events in the Middle East seem to answer the question posed by this volume's title, news headlines obscure the tectonic shift in Islamism that has occurred over the last couple of decades. Whatever Happened to the Islamists? represents one of the most exciting and innovative analyses of contemporary dislocations in the ideological project of political Islam to be published in recent years. It points the way forward for an entire field of study.

(Peter Mandaville, George Mason University, author of Global Political Islam)

Amel Boubekeur and Olivier Roy present a refreshing and provocative collection of essays, including several by younger scholars and others whose writings are rarely available in English. They showcase the iconoclasm, unanticipated fusions, and modernity of contemporary Islamic activism, much of which does not see conquest of state power as a central objective. Islamic activism today is manifested in all-women heavy metal bands, consumerism, corporate big business, and individualized consumer and cultural choices. This book deserves to be widely read and debated, especially by journalists, pundits, and public policy makers who may have thought they already knew Islamism.

(Joel Beinin, Stanford University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0231154267
• ISBN 13: 9780231154260
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Boubekeur Amel, Roy Olivier