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      • Reading Contemporary Jihadist. The writings of Islamic Thought.

        by Ahmed Abd Rabu, Mohamed Mokhtar Qandil

        The series of Nosous/Texts aims to present reviews of fundamental writings of number of thought and political trends that have effects on awareness and facts in our contemporary political and cultural life. Along with adding introductions and critical explanations that analyse and reveal the effect of these trends and their relations to the intellectual dilemmas in our country. This book is the first in the series. We try through it to lay before the Arab reader, in one volume, a presentation of the most important texts of the contemporary Jihadist Salafi trend, with its different movements and stages of time. They include the core texts of its schools of thought, the texts that founded its doctrinal and Sharia methods, and the texts that carried its political orientations on the level of strategy and technique. That is in addition to indexes containing definitions of all concepts and terms used in the literature of the trend, and a guide to the most important movements and organizations that were under its umbrella. In the book introduction, there is a chronological sequence recording all main stations in the development of the Jihadist Salafi movement internationally.

      • What is Political in Islam?

        by Mostafa Abdelzaher, Mohamed Tewfiq, Zeinab el Baqari and Mostafa Zahran

        Many writers and researchers tend to either look into the Islamic phenomenon as a whole or focus on one of its manifestations (Muslim Brotherhood; traditional Salafis; Jihadist Salafis) without considering other manifestations. This book seeks to look into unity and diversity within contemporary Islamic movements in Egypt. On one hand, the book examines the movement’s paths and its branching into different trends, and on the other hand, it examines the general umbrella of the whole phenomenon. This will be within a social-historical context focusing on the role of ideology in establishing political and social trends. This book is a collection of studies by several researchers edited by Mostafa Abdel Zaher. It highlights the patterns of Islamists and the factors behind the raise of political Islamic movements, from the establishment of Muslim Brotherhood to the period after July 2013 in four chapters: the first chapter is devoted to the experiment of the Muslim Brotherhood. The second chapters is for the social structures of Islamic youth in developmental work, students’ activities and simulations models, with a study on the pattern of “column Sheikh” school. The third chapter is for Salafis; their divisions and pragmatic concept of politics – with the transformations of each division after January Revolution and Rabaa events. The last chapter is for the Jihadist movements.   The book is only 152 pages. It is like a mapping of the Islamists’ divisions and a memory of the period before January 2011 to post July 2013.

      • Literary essays
        October 2018

        The Painter Devouring the Female Nude

        by Kamel Daoud

        One of the greatest Arabic writers revisits the theme of nudes, desire and women. Kamel Daoud spent a night alone in the Picasso Museum, a singular experience that inspired him to write this essay in which he juxtaposes the image of a female nude with the painter and a Jihadist. To Picasso, a woman was a body that could be truly captured only in terms of desire and erotic associations. The nude is also like a self-portrait imprinted on his subject’s flesh. In fact, she devours him, like a cannibal. But how does a Jihadist view this painting? In his view, the woman painted by Picasso is a scandalous anticipation of dream woman who awaits him in paradise, when he dies. She therefore incites disobedience and sin. For the former, she evokes dying of desire. For the latter, killing desire itself or dying in order to satisfy it.

      • Peace studies & conflict resolution
        September 2013

        Domestic Barriers to Dismantling the Militant Infrastructure in Pakistan

        by Stephen Tankel

        Serious concerns exist in Pakistan about threats to the state from a subset of its Islamist militants, but the military’s preoccupation with using jihadist proxies to achieve geopolitical aims remains. Although this is the greatest barrier to dismantling the militant infrastructure in Pakistan, it is not the only one. Numerous barriers reinforce the status quo when it comes to action against militancy and inform the segmented approach Pakistani elites—both civilian and military—take as they approach various militant groups.

      • Thriller / suspense
        March 2012

        Pirate

        by Duncan Falconer

        When elite operative John Stratton is sent to Yemen by the Secret Intelligence Service to track down a suspected al-Qaeda cell, he thinks he knows what he is dealing with.But when he and his colleagues get captured by Somali pirates, all bets are off. Stratton discovers what it is like to be held hostage by ruthless men who have a deadly agenda - men for whom Stratton and his colleagues are just bargaining chips. And this is no ordinary hostage situation: Stratton has stepped right into the middle of a massive and sickening jihadist operation.Fighting trained warriors who know no fear, Stratton's skill and ingenuity will be tested as never before as he battles for his life and for the values he holds dear...

      • Political ideologies
        October 2021

        Rechtspopulismus und Dschihad (Right-wing Populism and Jihad)

        Nautilus Flugschrift

        by Marc Thörner

        Similarities of western right-wing populists to radical Islamists are not merely coincidental – they share the same origin. “Neocolonialists!” – “Islamic Terrorists!”, these are the accusations with which the old and new right in the west and Islamists all over the world refer to each other. Apparently, right-wing populists and jihadists are sworn enemies. But if you take a look at the writings and authors that both movements refer to, you will find the same sources: Ernst Jünger, Martin Heidegger, Alexis Carrel. All three of them serve as reference not only for the New Right but also for the pioneers of radical Islam. Marc Thörner points out the common origin of these thoughts and their different but still related manifestations today: Both movements condemn secularism, liberalism and homosexuality, both commit to traditional social structures and values like religion, order and obedience, self-sacrifice and martyrdom, both fight individualism and rationalism. In Syria, radical Islamists and the political right already act like allies. Will they continue their mutual hostility in Europe or will they soon congregate here as well? For his research, Marc Thörner spoke to Alexander Gauland of German far right party AfD and travelled to the frontlines of Syrian civil war; he interviewed leading representatives of the Assad Regime, talked to Iranian writers, met Lebanese fascists and followers of Hisbollah as well as historians and Arabists in Europe.

      • The Heartbeat Of The Maghreb

        by Pablo MARTIN CARBAJAL

        A journey to the west of the Maghreb, in Mauritania and Morocco, with two protagonists we already met in Maybe Dakar, Álvaro and his sister Carol. A socio-historical and adventure novel. Álvaro and Cárol are two brothers who have a difficult relationship with each other, both working in the family business located in the Canary Islands. For business reasons they have to travel to Mauritania and Morocco on the same dates. Álvaro travels to Casablanca and decides to stay a few days longer than planned to visit the city of Fez. There, he meets Bachir, a Moroccan with a jihadist appearance who works in the Qaraouiyine mosque, with whom he makes an important discovery: in the renovation of his old library, some doors appear closed with a padlock with four locks, “The only truth”, can be read engraved on the doors. Álvaro and Bachir embark on a journey to the south in order to discover the enigma they are facing. For her part, Cárol travels to Mauritania, where she is received by an employee of her local partner, Mustapha, who belongs to the social group of the griots, the storytellers, through whom she learns about the complexity of Mauritanian society and the differences with the world she is used to, until a totally unforeseen event happens to her. A journey to the west of the Maghreb, Al Maghreb Al Aqsa, a plot that develops in two periods, the current period, but also jumps in time to tell the history of both countries, the role played by the independence leaders of Morocco, Mauritania and the Sahara, the cultural reality, the role of women, the crucial importance of Islam, its historical complexity and its challenges for the future. But above all, The Heartbeat of The Maghreb means adventure, not only the adventure experienced by its characters through the different vicissitudes that befall them, but the adventure of the encounter with the other, with those who are different.

      • Colonialism & imperialism
        December 2019

        Violence and Emancipation in Colonial Ideology

        by Rohan B. E. PRICE

        Are there ethics justifying anti-colonial violence? How and why did the violence and visions of nationalist movements become incorporated by colonial and neo-colonial rule? Using the insurrection by the Malayan Communist Party (1948–1960) as an example, this book argues that resorting to violence sped up the decolonisation of British Malaya by forcing its colonial administration to invent Malay nationalism and pursue ameliorative social policy among the Chinese diaspora community in a manner clearly derived from the Party’s platform. Yet this was not the same as giving the country economic emancipation from the expectations of neo-colonial rule. Violence and Emancipation in Colonial Ideology entertains no warm colonial memories of the cold war years. Confirming Price’s reputation as a plain speaking critic of Empire apologia, this book asks how colonial ideology was considered to be beneath Europe yet desperately needed by it. He faces down nostalgic communities defending an outdated view that “might was right” in South East Asia and that communism failed to contribute to the world that came to be. Using an Althusserian assumption, the book begs the question: if a late colonial state was subjective, then how did it claim a sufficiently objective mantle to rule and how did ideological techniques enable this? “… A major contribution to the literature.” – Prof Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London “… [an] unparalleled command of both scholarly literature and primary sources…” – Prof Björn Ahl, Professor and Chair of Chinese Legal Culture at the University of Cologne

      • Military life & institutions
        April 2014

        The Art of Military Coercion

        Why the West's Military Superiority Scarcely Matters

        by Rob de Wijk

        The United States spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined. And Western nations in general spend far more than developing nations around the globe. Yet when Western nations have found themselves in conflicts in recent decades, their performance has been mixed at best. In his fully updated new edition of The Art of Military Coercion, Rob de Wijk presents a theory on the use of force. He argues that the key is a failure to use force decisively, to properly understand the dynamics of conflict and balance means and ends. Without that ability, superiority of dollars, numbers, and weaponry won't necessarily translate to victory.

      • International relations
        March 2018

        The Libya War

        The use of rhetoric and deception to destroy a state

        by Ola Tunander

        The war in Libya has become a humanitarian disaster. This book reveals the dishonest methods that were used to influence world opinion to accept the need for a “humanitarian intervention” in Libya in 2011. It draws a picture of an operation in which a number of actors collaborated towards a common goal: to oust Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi . In 2011, the news media reported that Gaddafi had launched a genocide. Today we know that this claim was false. This book explains what actually happened during the war in Libya, and how everyone was deceived.

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