The Failure of Political Islam

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Harvard University Press, 1994 - History - 238 pages
Olivier Roy demonstrates that the Islamic Fundamentalism of today is still the Third Worldism of the 1960s: populist politics and mixed economies of laissez-faire for the rich and subsidies for the poor. In Roy's striking formulation, those marching today beneath Islam's green banners are the same as the "reds" of yesterday, with similarly dim prospects of success. Richly informed, powerfully argued, and clearly written, this is a book that no one trying to understand Islam can afford to overlook.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
The Concepts of Islamism
35
The Sociology of Islamism
49
The Impasses of Islamist Ideology
60
From the Muslim Brotherhood
75
The Islamist New Intellectuals
89
States and Networks
107
Between Illusions and Rhetoric
132
Jihad and Traditional Society
147
Shiism and Revolution
168
The Shiite Factor in Irans Foreign Policy
183
Tomorrows Gray Areas
194
Notes
205
Index
231
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About the author (1994)

Olivier Roy is Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and the author of Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan.

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