The Totalitarianism of Jihadist Islamism and its Challenge to Europe and to Islam
This article highlights aspects of Islamism ignored in much conventional political science by applying to it a composite conceptual framework made up of Hannah Arendt’s concept of totalitarianism as an ideology, movement and system of rule; political religion conceptualised both as a cultural system...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2007
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| In: |
Totalitarian movements and political religions
Year: 2007, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 35-54 |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article highlights aspects of Islamism ignored in much conventional political science by applying to it a composite conceptual framework made up of Hannah Arendt’s concept of totalitarianism as an ideology, movement and system of rule; political religion conceptualised both as a cultural system and as an ideology; the growing ‘culturation’ and ‘religionisation’ of politics; and the politicisation of Islam. When applied to Islamism this approach highlights the fact that its use of terrorism is one aspect of a much broader reaction to the threat of Islam society’s radical secularisation under the impact of the universalisation of western values. At its core lies an imagined umma community - postulated as an alternative model of civilisation to one offered by ‘the West’ - that claims global hegemony for its values. The analysis stresses that Islamism is not to be equated with Islam, or treated as a monolith, but rather as a religiously and culturally diversified phenomenon whose common denominator is adherence to din‐wa‐daula, i.e. the unity of Islamic religious principles as the legitimation of a totalitarian government. As a transnational force waging an irregular war fuelled by a fundamentalist interpretation of religion, it is resistant to attack by conventional military or security measures. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-9647 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Totalitarian movements and political religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14690760601121630 |