Author: Mahmood Mamdani
Publisher: Permanent Black
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8178241110
Description
In this brilliant look at the rise of political Islam, the distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani dispels the notion of good (secular and Westernized) Muslims as against bad (premodern, fanatic) Muslims. He argues that such judgments emerge out of politics rather than from cultural or religious identity.
Mamdani shows how political Islam emerged from a modern encounter with Western power, and how the terrorist movement within it arose out of the USA’s post-Vietnam proxy wars. His analysis ranges from the 1960s to the Reaganite-Thatcherite 1970s, when a simplistic ideological politics of good versus evil began to be espoused. It culminates by looking in detail at the global war against terror being waged in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim possesses a huge civilizational sweep which profoundly alters official understandings of Islamist politics that the US state propagates. It is more broadly a radical and necessary corrective to the way in which Islam is being projected by conservative forces in contemporary times.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
Modernity and Violence
CHAPTER ONE
Culture Talk; or, How Not to Talk About Islam and Politics
CHAPTER TWO
The Cold War After Indochina
CHAPTER THREE
Afghanistan: The High Point in the Cold War
CHAPTER FOUR
From Proxy War to Open Aggression
CONCLUSION
Beyond Impunity and Collective Punishment
Notes
Index