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The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder by Bassam Tibi

Authors: Bassam Tibi
ISBN-13: 9780520236905, ISBN-10: 0520236904
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of California Press
Date Published: August 2002
Edition: 1st Edition

Author Biography: Bassam Tibi

Bassam Tibi was born in Damascus and is currently Professor of
International Relations at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He is the author of several books in English, including Islam between Culture and Politics (2001), Arab Nationalism (third edition, 1996), Conflict and War in the Middle East, 1967-1981 (new edition, 1997), and The Crisis of Modern Islam (1988).

Book Synopsis

Long before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Islamic fundamentalism was exerting a significant influence in nearly every corner of the world. Bassam Tibi, a widely recognized expert on Islam and Arab culture, offers an important and disquieting analysis of this particular synthesis of religion and politics. A Muslim and descendant of a famous Damascene Islamic scholar family, Tibi sees Islamic fundamentalism as the result of Islam's confrontation with modernity and not only—as it is widely believed—economic adversity. The movement is unprecedented in Islamic history and parallels the inability of Islamic nation-states to integrate into the new world secular order.
For this updated edition, Tibi has written a new preface and lengthy introduction addressing Islamic fundamentalism in light of and since September 11.

Times Literary Supplement - Charles Tripp

Tibi is arguing for greater understanding and communication between cultures, as well as for an Islamic enlightenment.

	Preface to the updated edition
	Introduction to the updated edition
	Preface
1	The Context: Globalization, Fragmentation, and Disorder	1
	Islamic Fundamentalism, the West, and World Order	2
	Fundamentalism: A Response to the Problems of Globalization and Fragmentation	5
	The Secular Nation-State: Prime Target of Fundamentalism	6
	After the Cold War: Further Fragmentation	8
	The "Islamic Resurgence": Two Views	10
	Political Islam as a Variety of Fundamentalism	12
	The Clash of Two Universalisms: A "Clash of Civilizations"?	15
2	The Study of Islamic Fundamentalism and the Scope of the Inquiry	20
	Religion, Fundamentalism, and Civilizations	20
	Cultural Modernity in Reverse: Back to Collectivities	24
	Antagonizing Democracy and Creating Disorder	25
	Inventing Tradition: The Legacy of Islamic Reformism and Traditionalism	29
	The Structure of This Inquiry	32
3	World Order and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein	36
	The Legacy of the Gulf War	37
	The Search for a New World Order	42
	The Concept of Order between Cultural Relativism and Neo-Absolutism	46
	The Regionalization of World Politics and the Politicization of Middle Eastern Islam	50
	The Fundamentalist World Revolution: Jihad between Peace and Militancy	54
	An Islamic World Order?	60
4	The Sociocultural Background and the Exposure to Cultural Modernity	64
	Culture in World Politics: Globalized Structures and Cultural Fragmentation	65
	Islamic Fundamentalism as a Semi-Modern, Backward-Oriented Utopia Contesting Cultural Modernity	68
	Between Private Religiosity and the Politicization of Religious Beliefs	75
5	Cultural Fragmentation, the Decline in Consensus, and the Diffusion of Power in World Politics	82
	Cultural Fragmentation and the International Diffusion of Power	85
	Islamic Fundamentalism as the Expression of a Revolt against the West	89
	The Political Claims of Religious Options in a Secular World Order	93
	The Islamic State as the Nucleus of an Islamic World Order	99
	The Islamist Challenge: A Divine Global Order as an Alternative to Global Secularization?	104
	The Cultural Basis of World Politics in an Age of Intercivilizational Conflict	107
6	The Crisis of the Nation-State: Islamic, Pan-Arab, Ethnic, and Sectarian Identities in Conflict	114
	Understanding the Resort to Politicized Religion	115
	Is Political Islam the Solution?	116
	Between the Government of the People and the Government of God	119
	The Nation-State: Between Ethnicity and Fundamentalism	124
	Ethnicity, Regionalism, and the Search for Identity	128
	The Institutionally Fragile Nominal Nation-State	132
7	The Fundamentalist Ideology: Context and the Textual Sources	138
	The Repoliticization of Islam in Pursuit of a New Order	140
	The Regional and Global Context of the Fundamentalist Writings	144
	The Caliphate, the Fetwa, and the Distortion of History and Scripture	149
8	The Idea of an Islamic State and the Call for the Implementation of the Shari'a/Divine Law	158
	Din wa dawla/Unity of Religion and State: But What Else?	159
	Is the Shari'a an Islamic Constitution for an Islamic State?	165
	Islamic Critics and the Islamic State: Is It True that the Shari'a Rules?	169
	Is Shura an Islamic Substitute for Democracy?	173
9	Democracy and Democratization in Islam: An Alternative to Fundamentalism	179
	Democracy and International Morality	180
	Islamic Civilization, the West, and Democracy	183
	The Accommodation of Democracy without a Rethinking of Islam	188
	The Requirements for Democracy: Political Culture and Democratic Institutions	190
	The Cases of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia	193
10	Human Rights in Islam and the West: Cross-Cultural Foundations of Shared Values	199
	Islam and the West: From Dissent to International Morality	200
	What Are "Human Rights"? Why Do They Matter for Muslims?	204
	A Need for "Rethinking Islam": The Cultural Accommodation of Human Rights	207
	Local Cultures, Regional Civilizations, and Their Exposure to Globalization	209
	Notes	215
	Names index	253
	Subject index	257