Review: Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam

Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kepel provides a panoramic account of various incarnations of "political Islam" across the Arab and North African world outlining how and why events have unfolded as they did. At the heart of his analysis are two main insights:1) Only when Islamist movements can united the "devout bourgeoisie", the young urban poor (the "disinherited ones") and the religious clerics can they achieve success. Such an outcome is difficult to achieve given the tension inherent between these different groups though one notable past success occurred in Iran where a broad coalition was built under the tutelage of Khomeini. However, Kepel argues, such success has proved fleeting and the Iranian revolution has stagnated ever since.2) The violence of Islamist movements which aim at political power is a sign of their weakness. They lack capacity to mobilise the masses and so must resort to spectacular acts of terrorism to attempt to rally the faithful. This, Kepel thinks, is an approach which is destined to fail. The key example he cites is Algeria, where a military coup to stop an Islamist party gaining power via democratic means occurred; when a full-blown jihad was declared the various Islamist groups descended into bouts of internal violence which led to them ultimately alienating the masses they claim to represent.The book is both an engaging read and dense with detail, which at times can be hard to fully grasp. Nonetheless, his emphasis on the regional dynamics of the middle east in which the Saudis and Iranians vie for hegemony makes for interesting reading as does his emphasis on how Wahhabi teaching and the maddrassa educational system breeds extremism. A compelling read!

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