In this brilliant look at the rise of political Islam, the distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to bear on a question many Americans have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? Mamdani dispels the idea of “good” (secular, westernized) and “bad” (premodern, fanatical) Muslims, pointing out that these judgments refer t…
The book considers how various groups sought to legitimize violence as the struggle against imperialism, how political violence within the developing world was not generally characterized as terrorism but how the label was applied to small groups operating across the international boundaries of developed countries. It shows how campaigns end and groups disintegrate, the effect of the end of the…