11. The Allure of the Radical: Understanding Jihadist Violence in the West
- Author:
- Kabir Sethi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Macalester International
- Institution:
- Macalester College
- Abstract:
- Grand proclamations of world peace and prosperity, so famously made by scholars and politicians alike in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, today seem naive and almost laughable. Francis Fukuyama, writing as the Berlin Wall came down, believed that we were witnessing “Not just the end of the Cold War…but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”1 For better or worse, that has not been the case. To use Benjamin Barber's words, we seem to be witnessing “retribalization” rather than “McWorld.” The fall of Communism as a global political movement did not bring an end to anti-Western sentiment in the world, as testified to by annual riots in India on Valentine's Day, anti-American rallies in South Korea and Japan, and Peru and Venezuela's explicitly anti-Western regimes. One violent movement in particular, though, has especially caught the imagination of the West, the movement that is commonly referred to as “Islamic terrorism,” “global jihad,” or “contemporary jihadist violence.” Part of what makes this movement so noticeable is its seemingly global reach and appeal. From bombings in Bali, Indonesia, to attacks in India, the Middle East, Europe, and all the way to the United States, “Islamic terrorism” seems to have spread across the world. This essay addresses the appeal of radical and violent interpretations of Islam in continental Western Europe and the United States.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, India, and South Korea