Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism

£23.00

Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism

Religion: general Religious issues and debates Religious ethics Religious fundamentalism Islam Islam Islamic life and practice Islam

Author: Mohammad Hassan Khalil

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Language: English

Published by: Cambridge University Press

Published on: 21st December 2017

Format: LCP-protected ePub

Size: 2 Mb

ISBN: 9781108381925


Is Islam fundamentally violent?

For influential New Atheists such as Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Richard Dawkins, the answer is an emphatic yes, largely because of the Islamic doctrine of jihad. According to this view, when al-Qaeda plotted 9/11 or ISIS planned any one of its recent terrorist attacks, they were acting in accord with Islamic scripture.

Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism scrutinizes this claim by comparing the conflicting interpretations of jihad offered by mainstream Muslim scholars, violent Muslim radicals, and New Atheists. Mohammad Hassan Khalil considers contemporary Muslim terrorism to be a grave problem that we must now confront. He shows, however, that the explanations offered for this phenomenon by the New Atheists are highly problematic, and that their own interpretations of the role of violence in Islam exceed those of even radicals such as Osama bin Laden. In showing all of this, Khalil offers critical insights on a most pressing issue.

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