Terrorism in Question: Decolonizing Anthropology and the Study of Islam

Terrorism in Question crafts a political anthropology of post-9/11 “new terrorism” by investigating who needs the category of terrorists and offering a global framework to understand anthropology, Islam and terrorism. In contrast to their depiction as antimodern, barbarian and fanatic, this study theorizes “Muslim terrorists” as radical friends of equality and visionaries of an unrecognized ethical politics. Marshalling fieldwork with media practitioners and refugees, participant observation of counterterrorism conferences in India and Oslo, and encounters with terrorists, it reorients anthropology to elevate its public voice. This book shows how fieldwork, poetry and political theory come together to exemplify decolonized knowledge.

Irfan Ahmad is Professor of Anthropology-Sociology at Ibn Haldun University, Türkiye. He is the author of three monographs and was a Senior Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, Germany, and taught at UvA and Monash University, Australia. He delivered the 2023 Roy Rappaport distinguished lecture at University of Victoria, Canada.