Product Description

A schism has emerged between mainstream Islamist movements in the Muslim world (e.g. Hamas of Palestine and Hezbullah of Lebanon) and the uprooted militants who strive to establish an imaginary ummah, or Muslim community, not embedded in any particular society or territory. Roy provides a detailed comparison of these transnational movements, whether peaceful, like Tabligh Jamaat and the Islamic brotherhoods, or violent, like Al Qaeda. Neofundamentalism, he argues, is both a product and an agent of globalization.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #398768 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review

"High-octane brainwork...a large and highly intelligent contribution." -- The Economist

"Olivier Roy is perhaps the most provocative and innovative writer on Islamism today.... There is no more reliable guide to this labyrinth." -- Martin Kramer, Middle East Quarterly

"His new book provides one of the best and most detailed snapshots of 'real existing Islam' currently available." -- Jonathan Steele, The Guardian

"Nuanced discussion." -- Nader Hashemi, Globe and Mail

"Roy cuts through the mystical veil of religion... Globalized Islam gets under the skin of today's quintessentially modern forms of Islam and points the debate in a new direction." -- Josie Appleton, Spiked Online

"Roy's sociological analysis is always insightful." -- Mahmood Mamdani, Foreign Affairs

"Superb and complex sociological study." -- Fawaz A. Gerces, Washington Post Book World

"[Roy] suggest[s] that the important events in the world of Islam are taking place not in the regions we ordinarily think of as Islamic but in Europe." -- Noah Feldman, New York Times Book Review

"A very well-informed tour of the complexities of contemporary Islam." -- Future Survey

"Oliver Roy's writings are always worth reading, and Globalized Islam is no exception." -- Middle East Journal

"An in-depth analysis...An ambitious project...Recommended." -- Choice

"This book is a wonderful exploration of ideas on the future of Islamic radicalism." -- LCDR Aboul-Enein, Strategic Insight

"Always ahead of his time." -- Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard

"Roy is enormously knowledgeable and well aware of the problems faced by young Muslims." -- Lawrence Rosen, London Review of Books

"Roy's sociological theories cast a refreshing light on Islam's role as a minority religion in the West." -- American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

"An essential key to understanding not evident in similar-sounding discussions." -- Midwest Book Review: California Bookwatch

"This is an important book, one that must be read... [and] will serve as a useful referent for some time." -- Sanford Silverburg, Digest of Middle East Studies

"One of the Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International's 25 Top Books for Today's Bookshelf on Terrorism."

"The most comprehensive and rigorous study of the subject to date." -- John Gray, Harper's

Review

"A characteristically informed and incisive analysis of the new transnational movements and globalized responses that have developed in that past twenty years or so in the Muslim world. In this work, as in his others, he draws upon a profound knowledge of individual Muslim groups and an acute understanding of the interaction between theology and politics.... Roy is one of the most important analysts of political Islam today." -- James Piscatori, fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Wadham College, University of Oxford

About the Author

Olivier Roy is a professor at EHESS, the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris. Among his books are The Failure of Political Islam, The New Central Asia, and (with Mariam Abou Zahab) Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection (Columbia, 2004).

Customer Reviews

A new foundation for understanding modern Islam's sentiments and radicalism
Globalized Islam: The Search for a new Ummah pinpoints growing Islam militancy not abroad but in the West, arguing that the revival of Islam among Muslims over the last few decades is more a force of the pressures of globalization than a reaction to the West. In moving beyond the traditional, more common ' East versus West' argument, GLOBALIZED ISLAM provides a new foundation for understanding modern Islam's sentiments and radicalism, offering an essential key to understanding not evident in similar-sounding discussions.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Where is Islam headed?
There are plenty of ideas in this book. And I think it is worth reading, even though I rarely agreed with Roy's arguments or his conclusions.

The author begins by saying that "culturalists" say that "Islam is the issue." And he disagrees with them. Yes, the culturalists include just about everyone: Islamists, moderate Muslims, Islamophobes, anti-Islamophobes, and orientalists. But not him. He's not so sure it even makes sense to discuss a Muslim culture. And he sees what most of us think of as Islamic struggles actually being examples of nationalism and ethnicity. While Islam may provide some people with a sense of identity, he points out that in the war against Israel, there's no real difference politically between the seculars and the Islamists. And he asks if jihad is really closer to Marx (Karl, not Harpo or Groucho) than it is to the Koran.

I sort of blinked when I read that. While it might be true, I didn't quite agree with Roy's logic. He continued by explaining that the Chechens and the Levantine Arabs are engaged in liberation struggles. I think he's wrong about the Levantine Arabs. I see their struggle as being neither pro-religious, nor pro-nationalistic, nor even pro-ethnic, but very specifically anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-ethnic, and against human rights. Roy calls the Levantine Arabs a people, but I see them as an antipeople who have no positive goals for themselves that need to be satisfied but only goals of hurting a people they have banded together to fight. All this is quite the opposite of a liberation struggle. And using Islam as a means to get people to identify with one side in this fight does indeed make Islam at least part of the issue.

Roy continues by discussing the fact that Muslims still come up with polemics against competing religions. According to the author, Christians, for the most part, do not. Well, the Catholics do not. The Evangelicals and the Christian Right Wing do. And Roy concludes that the Christians aren't really competing against Islam. But once again, I think he's overlooking the possibility that some people might consider polemics to be poor form. I'm as willing as anyone to discuss the advantages of polytheism over monotheism. But I do not want to appear as though I am trying to impose religious practices on others.

Next, the author discusses the Westernization of Islam. Some of this section was quite interesting, especially the age-old differences between Sufis and Salafis. And later, there is a section on the future of Muslim terrorism and questions of deterritorialization. Once again, I had to ask what he really meant by that. Muslim terrorists exist in time and space just like the rest of us. At best, he meant to differentiate between explicit state support and implicit support from many of the people in a state.

Near the end of the book, Roy says that this is a time of great intellectual confusion. As an example, anti-imperialist "supporters" of Women's Rights support the Taliban! Well, if he thinks he is confused, that is fine. I'm not. If you support the Taliban, you do not support Women's Rights.

Yes, it is true that some Christian moderates are in an alliance with some Muslim fundamentalists. Some of them appear to be in this alliance to fight against Christian fundamentalists and Jews. And it may be interesting to see why. And yes, some Jewish moderates and Christian fundamentalists are allied as well, just to defend themselves. Once again, it may be interesting to see if these alliances extend to anything more than that. And I think it could be a good idea to investigate the very rare alliances of Muslim moderates and Jewish fundamentalists. But I think Roy has not offered us much merely by saying that there are alliances which cut across religious and political boundaries.

I found the book interesting, and I think it contains some intriguing facts.

Engulfed in details
The author presents bewildering array of facts. He certainly had enormous knoledge on the subject. It is a pity that he prefers to play with words instead of offering a proper analysis. Two quotations:
"When everything has to be Islamic, nothing is". Really?
"The illusion held by the Islamic radicals is that they represent tradition, when in fact they express a negative form of westernisation". Meaning what?
Still, if you have plenty of time and patience it might be worth to decode the convoluted paths of Mr. Roy arguments. I still have not make it to the end of the book - reading more than 30 pages daily is not possible.