A Fury for God: The Islamist Attack on America

by Malise Ruthven (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.10

  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 first reconstructs the events of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan. He 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. And in a changing analysis, the author 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.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $4.33

  In this thoughtful and authoritative book, Malise Ruthven provides an analysis of the terrible events of September 11 in New York and Washington. He discusses the role of the global market, the mystique of the twin towers and of New York and examines the tangled web of grievances, especially in the Middle East, that form the substance of the bombers' complaints against Western modernity. Ruthven traces the motivations of the men who flew the planes and killed so many thousands of innocent people, to their roots in certain currents of Islamic thought. He looks in detail at the work of the influential fundamentalist visionaries who have embraced a purist version of the Muslim faith, that is, in fact, very modern in its embrace of technology and rejection of tolerance. In particular, Ruthven gives a chilling insight into the mind of the man said to be the lead hijacker, Mohammed Atta. Malise Ruthven does not shrink from criticizing Western, particularly US policy for contributing to the instability that offers fertile ground to such spectacular terrorism. He examines the conduct of war in Afghanistan up to the end of 2001. His book, while it offers little to comfort the reader, does offer same guidelines for the future.

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $10.89

  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 first reconstructs the events of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan. He 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. And in a changing analysis, the author 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.