The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West - Hardcover

Gilles Kepel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674015754 ISBN 13: 9780674015753

Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004

Synopsis

The events of September 11, 2001, forever changed the world as we knew it. In their wake, the quest for international order has prompted a reshuffling of global aims and priorities. In a fresh approach, Gilles Kepel focuses on the Middle East as a nexus of international disorder and decodes the complex language of war, propaganda, and terrorism that holds the region in its thrall.

The breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2000 was the first turn in a downward spiral of violence and retribution. Meanwhile, a neo-conservative revolution in Washington unsettled U.S. Mideast policy, which traditionally rested on the twin pillars of Israeli security and access to Gulf oil. In Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, a transformation of the radical Islamist doctrine of Bin Laden and Zawahiri relocated the arena of terrorist action from Muslim lands to the West; Islamist radicals proclaimed jihad against their enemies worldwide.

Kepel examines the impact of global terrorism and the ensuing military operations to stem its tide. He questions the United States' ability to address the Middle East challenge with Cold War rhetoric, while revealing the fault lines in terrorist ideology and tactics. Finally, he proposes the way out of the Middle East quagmire that triangulates the interests of Islamists, the West, and the Arab and Muslim ruling elites. Kepel delineates the conditions for the acceptance of Israel, for the democratization of Islamist and Arab societies, and for winning the minds and hearts of Muslims in the West.

About this title

About the Author:

Gilles Kepel is Professor and Chair of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Relations between Islam and the West have never been straightforward; just how complicated they are is brought out in Gilles Kepel's book. It is a complex, nuanced, and illuminating analysis and description of the ideological current and historical events that have created the present-day "war for Muslim minds."
--Carolyn M. Warner (Ethics and International Affairs)

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0674015754
• ISBN 13: 9780674015753
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336