Capsule Review
Mar/Apr
2009
<p>L. Carl Brown</p>
Kepel frames this account in terms of two concurrent, contending "grand narratives" -- the Bush administration's "global war on terror" and al Qaeda's global jihad. Both professed a utopian aspiration.
Review Essay
Jan/Feb
2005
Mahmood Mamdani
Thinking of modern jihad as simply a cultural extension of Islam is a common, and unfortunate, mistake. Two new books by Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy offer better historical and sociological explanations, but they are only a start.
Review Essay
May/Jun
2002
James P. Piscatori
Bernard Lewis asks what went wrong with Islam and finds centuries of victimhood; Gilles Kepel considers Islamism a utopian project whose moment has passed. Together, their books depict the passionate debate over politics in the Muslim world.
