Receding Shadow of the Prophet: The Rise and Fall of Radical Political Islam

by Ray Takeyh

Overview

Argues that political Islam is effective as a means of opposition but fails as a system of governance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313057137
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/30/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	278 KB

About the Author

RAY TAKEYH is Professor and Director of studies at the Near East and South Asia Center of the National Defense University and author of The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The U.S., Britain, and Nasser's Eqypt, 1953-57.

NIKOLAS K. GVOSDEV is Executive Editor of The National Interest and a senior fellow for strategic studies at the Nixon Center. His most recent work is Civil Society and the Search for Justice in Russia.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Introducton	xi
Chapter 1	The Islamist Challenge	1
	Islamism versus Muslim Politics	2
	The Islamist Outlook	8
	Attractions and Pitfalls of Islamism	14
Chapter 2	Iran: The Islamist State and the Reformist Agenda	23
	Revolution and Reform	24
	Reform's Real Track Record	29
	A Civil War in the Right	32
	The New Iran?	36
Chapter 3	Islamism in Algeria: A History of Hope and Agony	39
	The Growing Political and Social Gaps	39
	The Evolution of Political Islam in Algeria	42
	The Rise and Fall of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)	44
	Whither Algeria?	51
Chapter 4	Egypt: The Struggle for a Nation's Soul	59
	Nasser and the Muslim Brotherhood	60
	Killing Pharaoh	61
	The Egyptian Stalemate	68
	Islamism and Moderation in Egypt	71
Chapter 5	Islamism in the Former Yugoslavia	77
	Islam and Nationality in Yugoslavia: A General Overview	78
	Muslims, Islam, and the War in Bosnia, 1990-2002	84
	Albanians, Islam, and Kosovo, 1974-1999	94
	Did the Balkans Become an Islamist Beachhead? Concluding Thoughts	96
Chapter 6	From the Red Star to the Green Crescent? Islamism in the Former Soviet Union	105
	The Shadow of the Crescent? Assumptions about Islam in the Soviet Union	106
	Islam, Gorbachev, and the Breakup of the USSR	114
	Post-Soviet Islam: General Observations	119
	State Islam and the Eurasian Consensus	122
	Islamists Ascendant? The Case of Tajikistan	126
	Islamists Ascendant? The Case of Chechnya	131
	The Islamist Threat in Eurasia: A Realistic Assessment	135
Chapter 7	Some Thoughts on Islamist Failures in Sudan and Afghanistan	147
	Sudan: Trajectory of Failure	148
	Afghanistan: An Islamist Cambodia?	152
	Conclusion	157
	Selected Bibliography	169
	Index	183