Gilles Kepel Books

A landmark study of the rise of Islamic extremism, Jihad follows the history and spread of this new political-religious phenomenon from its beginnings as a militant rebellion in the Middle East during the 1970s to its culmination in a devastating onslaught on the West in 2001. Gilles Kepel explains how their jihad - or 'Holy Struggle' - aimed to establish a global Islamic state based solely on a strict interpretation of the Qur'an clashes with the values of Western democracies. Kepel's exploration of Jihadism is informed by his journeys throughout the Muslim world to gather documents, interviews and archival material inaccessible to most scholars.

Written by a leading expert on Islamist movements, this work gives a perceptive account of the foundations of radical Islamic organisations, and offers insights into the structure, theory and tactics employed by the various groups as early as the 1970s in Egypt.

Away from Chaos is a sweeping political history of four decades of Middle East conflict and its worldwide ramifications. Gilles Kepel offers a clear and persuasive narrative of the long-term causes of tension while seamlessly incorporating on-the-ground observations and personal experiences from the people who lived through them.

Praise for the French edition: [Terror in France is] the most essential book to read about France today. . . . Gilles Kepel's important book is the best account we have of all the factors and events that helped create the current situation. - Mark Lilla, New York Review of Books

"Kepel examines the impact of global terrorism and the ensuing military operations to stem its tide. He questions the United States' ability to address the Middle East challenge with Cold War rhetoric, while revealing the fault lines in terrorist ideology and tactics. Finally, he proposes a way out of the Middle East quagmire that triangulates the interests of Islamists, the West, and the Arab and Muslim ruling elites. That path leads through Muslim immigrant communities in the West--the ultimate battlefield where the struggle for the democratization of Islamic societies will be won or lost"--Jacket

Kepel urges us to escape the ideological quagmire of terrorism and martyrdom and explore the terms of a new and constructive dialogue between Islam and the West. This book sounds the alarm to the West and to Islam that both of these exhausted narratives are bankrupt—neither productive of democratic change in the Middle East nor of unity in Islam.

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