The spread of Islam around the globe has blurred the connection between a religion, a specific society, and a territory. One-third of the world's Muslims now live as members of a minority. At the heart of this development is, on the one hand, the voluntary settlement of Muslims in Western societies and, on the other, the pervasiveness and influence of Western cultural models and social norms. The revival of Islam among Muslim populations in the last twenty years is often wrongly perceived as a backlash against westernization rather than as one of its consequences. Neofundamentalism has been gaining ground among a rootless Muslim youth -- particularly among the second- and third-generation migrants in the West -- and this phenomenon is feeding new forms of radicalism, ranging from support for Al Qaeda to the outright rejection of integration into Western society.
In this brilliant exegesis of the movement of Islam beyond traditional borders and its unwitting westernization, Olivier Roy argues that Islamic revival, or "re-Islamization," results from the efforts of westernized Muslims to assert their identity in a non-Muslim context. A schism has emerged between mainstream Islamist movements in the Muslim world -- including Hamas of Palestine and Hezbollah of Lebanon -- and the uprooted militants who strive to establish an imaginary ummah, or Muslim community, not embedded in any particular society or territory. Roy provides a detailed comparison of these transnational movements, whether peaceful, like Tablighi Jama'at and the Islamic brotherhoods, or violent, like Al Qaeda. He shows how neofundamentalism acknowledges without nostalgia the loss of pristine cultures, constructing instead a universal religious identity that transcends the very notion of culture. Thus contemporary Islamic fundamentalism is not a single-note reaction against westernization but a product and an agent of the complex forces of globalization.
Industry Reviews
"Olivier Roy is perhaps the most provocative and innovative writer on Islamism today... There is no more reliable guide to this labyrinth." -- Martin Kramer, Middle East Quarterly "His new book provides one of the best and most detailed snapshots of 'real existing Islam' currently available." -- Jonathan Steele, The Guardian "Nuanced discussion." -- Nader Hashemi, Globe and Mail "Roy cuts through the mystical veil of religion... Globalized Islam gets under the skin of today's quintessentially modern forms of Islam and points the debate in a new direction." -- Josie Appleton, Spiked Online "Superb and complex sociological study." -- Fawaz A. Gerces, Washington Post Book World "[Roy] suggest[s] that the important events in the world of Islam are taking place not in the regions we ordinarily think of as Islamic but in Europe." -- Noah Feldman, New York Times Book Review "A very well-informed tour of the complexities of contemporary Islam." -- Future Survey "Oliver Roy's writings are always worth reading, and Globalized Islam is no exception." -- Middle East Journal "This book is a wonderful exploration of ideas on the future of Islamic radicalism." -- LCDR Aboul-Enein, Strategic Insight "Always ahead of his time." -- Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard "Roy is enormously knowledgeable and well aware of the problems faced by young Muslims." -- Lawrence Rosen, London Review of Books "Roy's sociological theories cast a refreshing light on Islam's role as a minority religion in the West." -- American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences "An essential key to understanding not evident in similar-sounding discussions." -- Midwest Book Review: California Bookwatch "This is an important book, one that must be read... [and] will serve as a useful referent for some time." -- Sanford Silverburg, Digest of Middle East Studies "One of the Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International's 25 Top Books for Today's Bookshelf on Terrorism." "The most comprehensive and rigorous study of the subject to date." -- John Gray, Harper's
