- Published: 19/02/2004
- ISBN: 9781862075733
- 129x20mm
- 346 pages
A Fury For God
Malise Ruthven
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.
£9.99
A powerful investigation into what generated the World Trade Centre atrocity ... A work full of insight
Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph
Excellent ... possibly the most balanced synthesis yet published on the rise of militant Islam. It is bubbling with ideas and is a perfect primer for anyone wishing a clear overview of the subject. Ruthven is a perceptive and witty observer
William Dalrymple, Sunday Times
In a brilliantly illuminating and arrestingly readable analysis, Ruthven demonstrates the close affinities between radical Islamist thought and the vanguard of modernist and postmodern thinking in the West