Fault Lines in the Faith: How Events of 1979 Shaped the Islamic World

Iqbal Syed Hasnain

• Publisher: Rupa Publications India
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9789357029414
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Politics

A critical analysis of how the events of 1979 shaped the trajectory of the Islamic world and led to modern-day challenges.

In the last few decades, an extremely anti-pluralistic, visibly misogynistic, and terribly intolerant strain of Islam has taken control, spreading out to other countries and eventually wreaking havoc across the world. This research explores the radicalization of Muslim youth in North America and Europe, as well as the sectarian fault lines and rise of the Shia crescent in the Middle East. These developments ultimately led to the rise of ISIS, along with the weaponization of Islamic thought through the use of social media platforms for the recruitment of jihadi volunteers.

This important work exposes how extremist outfits, with the support of the religious apparatus, methodically managed to scar the face of a faith. Perfect for readers interested in:

• Political Islam
• Middle Eastern studies
• Religious extremism

Table of contents

• Chapter four looks into the genesis of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran since the Islamic Revolution. The US–Saudi economic and military alliance since the 1930s is one of the consistent factors in the American foreign policy in spite of the fact that the Arab country is governed by a repressive monarchy. It is known to the world that Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi ideology is a major contributing factor in the spread of extremism among the Muslim communities around the world. This rigid ideology demonizes other faiths and promotes intense intolerance towards all sects of Islam other than
• Chapter six describes how the Islamist groups have been smartly using social media platforms, including by creating ‘cyber armies’, to recruit and radicalize a large number of millennial Muslims. The Islamic State (IS) brought cyber jihad to a whole new level—from using static websites, chat forums and online magazines, to making intelligent use of interactive and fast-paced social media platforms. ISIS, which branched out from the al-Qaeda tent, used social media apps and other advanced tools to propagate their ideology and to execute their missions.
• PROLOGUE
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