This volume offers a collection of essays useful for analyzing and comparing terrorist movements, especially in relation to Islamic terrorism. But its scope goes well beyond that, offering theoretical insights into the concept of terrorism, debating the puzzling phenomenon from various traditions of thought, including analyses of writings by Jürgen Habermas, Michael Walzer and Eric Weil. It examines the uses of violence by terrorism: the “who,” the “how” and the “when.” Present day terrorism is a modern phenomenon to be distinguished from classical insurgency, revolution, guerrilla warfare, or coups d’état; it is mainly directed at modern societies, whether from a religious-fundamentalist point of view, or from radical social and ecological movements. In short, terrorism uses largely fabricated ways of thought for political-polemological ends.
In Terrorism: Politics, Religion, Literature, the reader will find plenty of food for thought, as the chapters span a wide range of approaches, including manifestos, film and literature. It will be of particular interest to observers, scholars, students, military personnel, journalists, and government analysts.
