A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism (Critique Influence Change) - Softcover

S. Sayyid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842771973 ISBN 13: 9781842771976

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

This is a provocative and innovative account of how Muslim identities have come to play an increasingly political role. It shows how Islamic movements are best understood as a continuation of political and cultural decolonization. The fear and anxiety aroused by the 'Islamic threat' is not a myth nor simply a consequence of terrorism or fundamentalism. It signals the end of the uncontested notion that 'West is best'. Islamism means having to rethink Western identity and its place in the world, and acknowledging that the West is just another civilization among many. This study draws upon the full breadth of poststructuralist thought as a means of better understanding Islamism. It is necessary reading for all those who are interested in the Muslim world and academics concerned with questions of 'race' and place in a poststructuralist context.

About this title

Review

'Sayyid's book has considerable intellectual and personal drive, showing how the adoption of a poststructuralist perspective can alter our perception of important matters of cultural politics' - Nations and Nationalism 'A theoretically sophisticated attempt to read contemporary Muslim political identities as a symptom of Eurocentrism's decline' - Global Society 'A welcome change... should be of great interest to those who wish to look at the phenomenon of political Islam and the divination of the clash between the West and the rest from a more sophisticated and theoretical angle... a worthy contribution.' - Impact International 'Sayyid, with this dense and seminal work, has made a welcome attempt to reframe the uses of the term Islam within intellectual discourses without resort to populist terminology. The book is a broad treatment of the state of Islam and its relationship with the West and the West's relationship with the East... takes a fresh look at how Islam has reached its much-maligned status... Not only is [Sayyid] polemical, incisive and engaging, he is at times poetical. His use of metaphor and analogy serves to illustrate the complexity of the issues that he is putting across' - Sociology 'If we were to take up the suggestion of Norberto Bobbio that classics are those works able to speak to us in any time and any space, then this book should almost certainly be included in a list of contemporary classics...Although both Islamists and Orientalists have constructed an opposition between the West and Islam, this myth is convincingly deconstructed by Sayyid's argument - and the book leaves us with little doubt this dichotomy is a major simplification of the historical processes of the last century.' - Contemporary South Asia, December 2005

About the Author

S. Sayyid is Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. He has previously taught at the Universities of East London, Manchester and Salford.

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1842771973
• ISBN 13: 9781842771976
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 208