Islamism and the West: From "Cultural Attack" to "Missionary Migrant"

Description

Offering a unique analysis of Islamist ideology, Islamism and the West attempts to explain how- and why-mainstream Islamist leaders have, for the past century, developed and canonized theories which depict theWest as engaged in a sophisticated conspiracy to undermine Muslim identity by cultural means, while morallycollapsing and yearning for the spiritual salvation brought by Muslim migrants. This book demonstrates how seemingly triumphalist Islamist writings served, in fact, to legitimize pragmatic concessions undertaken by Islamists – from cooperating with regimes allied with the West, to encouraging Muslim migration to Christian lands. Following the Arab Spring, and with Islamism becoming a dominant force in Middle Eastern politics, Islamism and the West is an essential reading for the understanding of a region in transition Providing new insights on familiar concepts including ‘cultural imperialism,’ ‘liberal democracy,’ and ‘civilisational decline,’ this book will be of use to students of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Political Science, Migration Studies and Cultural Studies. Uriya Shavit is a senior Lecturer at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University.He specializes in the study of modern Islamic law and politics and is author of numerous articles and six books in these fields, including; The New Imagined Community: Global Media and the Construction of National and Muslim Identities of Migrants (2009). Introduction 1 Second-Generation Islamism in the Path of Pragmatic Idealism 2 Disco is the New Crusader: Roots and Systemization of the "Cultural Attack" 3 Do Cultures Possess Guns? Contextualizing and Debating the "Cultural Attack" 4 The Decline of the West: Predicting the Collapse of a Godless Civilisation 5 From Nadir to Triumph: Constructing the Muslim Migrant as a Missionary Conclusion