A fresh look
http://economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5135539
Nov 10th 2005
From The Economist print edition
"AL-QAEDA'S importance in the long run lies not in its pioneering a
new form of networked militancy, but instead in its fragmentation of
traditional structures of Muslim authority within new global
landscapes." With these words, Faisal Devji, a historian at the New
School for Social Research in New York, proposes a radically new way of
thinking about Osama bin Laden's global jihad.
A fresh interpretation of jihad is certainly welcome. But do not
approach this challenging essay, which was published in Britain in
September and which comes out later this month in America, expecting a
familiar narrative of al-Qaeda and its founder, or of the eponymous
"war on terror". Mr Devji dispenses with conventional analysis and
with much that is regarded as received wisdom.
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