The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism

This is the first English translation of Olivier Roy and Antoine Sfeir's Dictionnaire mondial de l'islamisme, a widely reviewed and critically praised resource. More than two hundred entries detail the history of Islamism and Islamic countries, providing a balanced account of major movements and organizations, as well as philosophers, activists, militants, and other prominent figures. This dictionary is also unique in its examination of the antimodern incarnation of islamicism and its efforts to claim (or reclaim) Muslim society, families, and professional environments. It considers such questions as whether activist Islam is "terrorist," whether it can coexist with Western societies, if terrorism can be justified by the Koran, and what are the components of an international Islam. The editors, world renowned for their scholarship and expertise on this subject, approach Islamism from geopolitical, sociological, and historical aspects, assembling a truly original and long-overdue resource. Includes detailed entries on the roots of Islamic Jihad and Islamism in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chechnya, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, and the Balkans, among other countries and locations; profiles of such key individuals as Louis Farrakhan, Britain's Abu Hamza Al-Masri, Algeria's Hassan Hattab, the Egyptian orator and charismatic leader Hassan Al-Banna, and the founder of the Jombesh-i Melli Islami movement, Abdul Rashid Dostum; historical events such as Syria's Hama massacre; organizations and religious movements such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Association of Militant Clergy, Morocco's Hizb Al-Adl W-Al-Inma (Justice and Development Party), Iran's Association for the Defense of the Values of the Islamic Revolution, Ahl-I Hadith (People of the Prophet's Word); and such groups as the Coalition of Islamic Societies and Lebanon's Al-Ahbash.