Radical Islam, Nihilist Rage

Excellent article by Kenan Malik on Jihadism and Islamism.

This is an except but the whole article is definitely worth reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/opinion/sunday/kenan-malik-the-nihilist-rage-of-radical-islam.html?smid=fb-share&_r=3

Quote

For many, the actions of groups like the Islamic State or the Taliban merely provide ammunition to promote anti-Muslim hatred .Many liberals, on the other hand, prefer to sidestep the issue by suggesting that the Taliban or the Islamic State do not represent “real Islam” — a claim made recently, in so many words, by both President Obama and David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain. Many argue, too, that the actions of such groups are driven by politics, not religion.

Neither claim is credible. A religion is defined not just by its holy texts but also by how believers interpret those texts — that is, by its practices. The ways in which believers act out their faith define that faith. The fact that Islamist extremists practice their religion in a manner abhorrent to liberals does not make that practice less real.

Nor does it make sense to think of the Taliban or the Islamic State as motivated simply by politics, any more than it does to imagine them as purely religious. Radical Islam is the religious form through which a particular kind of barbarous political rage expresses itself.

Instead, we need to ask why political rage against the West takes such nihilistic forms today. And why has radical Islam become its principal vehicle?

The character of anti-Western sentiment has changed strikingly in recent decades. There is a long history of anti-imperialist movements stretching from the Haitian revolution of the 1790s to the independence movements of the 1960s and ’70s in Africa and Asia. While these challenged Western power and often used violent means, they were rarely “anti-Western” in an essential sense. Indeed, their leaders often embraced revolutionary ideas that came out of the West, self-consciously locating themselves in the tradition of the European Enlightenment.

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Topic: Radical Islam, Nihilist Rage - Kenan Malik

TheDashingRabbit

OP - January 04, 2015, 04:26 PM

billy

Reply #1 - January 04, 2015, 04:33 PM

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