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Suicide Bombers

Suicide Bombers

Allah's New Martyrs

by Farhad Khosrokhavar

What drives young men and women to become suicide bombers? This remarkable book, already a bestseller in Europe, provides some answers.
In the West, the suicide bomber has become a familiar image in newspapers and on television. In Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and elsewhere, the results of suicide bombing have been devastating. What drives young men and women to become suicide bombers? This is not a question that is often addressed.

This remarkable book provides some of the answers, and explores how the suicide bomber relates to the concept of the martyr in fundamentalist Islam. Farhad Khosrokhavar contrasts it with the idea of the martyr in Christianity. Most importantly, he offers a clear insight into the different ways in which the concept is viewed within Islam, including divisions within Islamic fundamentalist groups, which change according to the political situation of the country in which they are based.

Drawing on extensive interviews with jailed Islamist militants, Farhad Khosrokhavar examines differing attitudes towards the 'sacred death' in various Islamic countries, including Iran, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt. He also investigates transnational networks such as Al-Qaeda, offering portraits of various prisoners who belong to the group.

Farhad Khosrokhavar is Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of The New Arab Revolutions that Shook the World (Paradigm, 2012) and Suicide Bombers (Pluto, 2005).

A Note On Terminology
Introduction
Two Forms Of Martyrdom
1. Islam
Jihad: Holy War
Migration (Hijira), The Call (Da’wa) And Holy War (Jihad)
2. The Impossible National Community
Martrdom In Iran
Martyrdom In Palestine
Lebanon Between Martyrdom And Absurdity
Martyrdom In Lebanon
3. The Trans-National Neo-Umma: Al-Qaeda’s
Martyrs
Diasporic Ummas
Forms Of Humiliation
The Global Metropolis
Organisational Forms
New Ummas
Different Types Of Actor
The Exclusion Of Women
The New Globalised Imaginary
Conclusion
Afterword To The English Edition
References
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Feb 2005
Paperback ISBN: 9780745322834

135mm x 215mm