Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror

Mahmood Mamdani

ISBN 10: 0385515375 / ISBN 13: 9780385515375

Editore: Random House USA Inc, 2005

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Distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani, father of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, offers an "exceptionally clear [and] especially shocking" (San Francisco Chronicle) examination of political Islam, the factors that led to 9/11, and the global repercussions on Muslims everywhere. "This provocative and thoughtful inquiry is a valuable contribution to the understanding of some of the most important developments in the contemporary era."--Noam Chomsky In Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to a question many Americans have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? Mamdani dispels the idea of "good" (secular, westernized) and "bad" (premodern, fanatical) Muslims, pointing out that these judgments refer to political rather than cultural or religious identities. The presumption that there are "good" Muslims readily available to be split off from "bad" Muslims masks a failure to make a political analysis of our times. Political Islam, Mamdani argues, emerged as the result of a modern encounter with Western power, and that the terrorist movement at the center of Islamist politics is an even more recent phenomenon, one that followed America's embrace of proxy war after its defeat in Vietnam. He writes with great insight about the Reagan years, showing America's embrace of the highly ideological politics of "good" against "evil." Identifying militant nationalist governments as Soviet proxies in countries such as Nicaragua and Afghanistan, the Reagan administration readily backed terrorist movements, hailing them as the "moral equivalents" of America's Founding Fathers. The era of proxy wars came to an end with the invasion of Iraq, where, as in Vietnam, America was not fighting terrorism but nationalism, a battle that cannot be won by occupation. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim is a provocative and important book that will profoundly change our understanding both of Islamist politics and the way America is perceived in the world today.

Codice articolo CIN0385515375G

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
• Editore: Random House USA Inc
• Data di pubblicazione: 2005
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0385515375
• ISBN 13: 9780385515375
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Condizione: Good

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

In this brilliant look at the rise of political Islam, the distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to bear on a question many Americans have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? Good Muslim, Bad Muslim is a provocative and important book that will profoundly change our understanding both of Islamist politics and the way America is perceived in the world today.

Informazioni sull'autore

Mahmood Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda. A political scientist and anthropologist, he is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. His previous books include
Citizen and Subject and When Victims Become Killers. In 2001 he presented one of the nine papers at the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium. He lives in New York City and Kampala with his wife and son.