The Mind of Jihad

This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through multiple lines of communication. This book brings history, anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad that has declared war on the West and the world.

Table of Contents:
1. 'We love death'; 2. 'An elite of amoral supermen'; 3. The Gnostic Mahdi; 4. Manichean tribalism; 5. The odd pedigree of modern jihad; 6. The mutated virus: 'Islamic Revolution'; 7. Jihad as terror.

About the Author :
Laurent Murawiec taught philosophy, was a foreign correspondent, co-founded and managed a consulting company for geopolitical and geoeconomic affairs, and taught at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales. He has served as a consultant for the French Ministry of Defense and as a Senior International Policy Analyst with the RAND Corporation and is currently a senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute. He is the author of La Guerre au XXIè Siècle (2000), L'Esprit des Nations: Cultures et Géopolitique (2002), La Guerre d'Après (2003), and Vulnerabilities in the Chinese Way of War (2004), as well as an acclaimed French translation of Clausewitz's On War (1999).

Review :
"An unsparing study of Islamic Radicalism, anchored in the data and the histories of Islam's movements. Laurent Murawiec has produced a work of genuine and subtle learning, a book that situates Islamism in the broader context of millenarian movements the world over. I believe that this is a work that will make for itself a sure place in the Writings on Islamic Radicalism. An author at once brave and disciplined." -Fouad Ajami, Johns Hopkins University "Murawiec argues that the intellectual lineage of Modern Jihad goes beyond its proximate causes and alleged grievances; he shows that its ideological roots run deep in history, in culture, in heresy and in its affinity to the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. His thesis will anger some and challenge others, but it will have to be taken seriously by anyone wanting to understand modern terror." -Mark T. Clark, California State University, San Bernardino, President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa "Laurent Murawiec draws on a remarkable range of historical, religious, ideological and ideational sources. The breadth and insight of his treatment deserve comparison with the work of Bernard Lewis, while breaking new ground in shaping our understanding of the contemporary jihad movement and in particular what Murawiec describes as, 'the etiology of such a love of death, a worship of blood, a cult of violence.' This is a sophisticated, original, yet highly readable book, unflinching in its description and analysis. Murawiec makes the case that the structure of violent jihadist ideology mirrors the millenarian insurrections that wreaked havoc in Europe from 1100 to 1550. Those movements arose under conditions of intense social dislocation caused by rapid change and which triggered individual and societal disorientation, anomie and loss of confidence in established religion and authority. By implication, some of the same deep societal impulses have been at work in contemporary Arab Muslim societies." -Robert J. Lieber, Georgetown University "Wars are first fought in the mind before they are fought on the battlefield. Understanding one's enemy, beginning with the fact that an enemy exists with intelligible world historical ambitions, is the first principle of war and peace. Laurent Murawiec's detailed The Mind of Jihad is a book many will not want to know about; it is too detailed, too sweeping, too accurate to leave much room for doubt about the nature and seriousness of purpose of those who in fact war against us with dedicated purpose. Murawiec writes clearly, frankly. His intended audience includes Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Chinese, and all, scholarly or ordinary, who seek to come to grips with the intellectual origins and purposes of the Jihad, including especially those who recently insist that the word cannot be used among us, its primary objects." -James V. Schall, S. J., Georgetown University