A Fury For God: The Islamist Attack On America - Softcover

Ruthven, Malise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1862075735 ISBN 13: 9781862075733

Publisher: Granta Books, 2004

Synopsis

The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington were carried out by men steeped in a certain Islamic ideology, which has come to be called Islamism. In A Fury for God, Malise Ruthven reconstructs the events of 11 September and the war in Afghanistan and traces the role of the idea of 'jihad' and examines the permissibility of suicide in Islam. He reconstructs the world-view of Islamist intellectuals like Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian thinker who has influenced an entire generation of radicals in the Arab world, notably Osama bin Laden. Ruthven highlights their obsessive attention to sexual matters. He also shows that it would be a mistake to treat these people as medieval fanatics: their attitude to modernity is dangerous and ambivalent. The author also exposes the crucial importance of the Saudi connection, the massive sponsorship of 'fundamentalism' by an authoritarian tribal regime that has been tolerated by the international community for the sake of Western economic stability. Ruthven's identification of the ambiguities in Western policy is powerfully provocative.

About this title

Review:

'Engrossed me as a powerful investigation into what generated the World Trade Centre atrocity...a work full of insight’ -- Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

‘Part journalism and part scholarship...it provides valuable insights into the mind of radical Islam’ -- The Economist

‘This excellent book is possibly the most balanced synthesis yet published on the rise of militant Islam’ -- The Sunday Times

‘Thoughtful and authoritative...the first study that specifically addresses the atrocity and the reasons behind it’ -- The Middle East

About the Author:

Malise Ruthven is the author of Islam: A Short Introduction; Islam in the World; The Divine Supermarket (a study of Christian fundamentalism); and of A Satanic Affair (a book about the Rushdie affair). He is a visiting professor at the University of California at San Diego.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1862075735
• ISBN 13: 9781862075733
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 346