Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics [Paperback]

Argues that various forms of militancy, such as the actions of al-Qaeda, are informed by the same desire for agency and equality that animates other humanitarian interventions, such as environmentalism and pacifism.Faisal Devji argues that new forms of militancy, such as the actions of al-Qaeda, are informed by the same desire for agency and equality that animates other humanitarian interventions, such as environmentalism and pacifism. To the militant, victimized Muslims are more than just symbols of ethnic and religious persecution-they represent humanity's centuries-long struggle for legitimacy and agency. Acts of terror, therefore, are fueled by the militant's desire to become a historical actor on the global stage. Though they have yet to build concrete political institutions, militant movements have formed a kind of global society, and as Devji makes clear, this society pursues the same humanitarian objectives that drive more benevolent groups.Faisal Devjiis Reader in Modern South Asian History and Fellow of St. Antony's College, University of Oxford A brilliant long essay on the ethical underpinnings of modern jihad. --New York Review of Books

An oasis in the wearisome desert of al-Qaeda studies. It is, in the best possible sense, subversive. --The Economist

Thought-provoking, and elegantly written. --Times Literary Supplement

An erudite analysis of the rise of jihadism as almost a new 'sect' within Islam-one that combines mystical and traditional elements of Islam with a sophisticated globalization effort based on an ethical, rather than political, worldview. -- Slate.com

The Terrorist in Search of Humanityis in many ways a sequel to Devji s equally provocative 2005 book,Landscapes of the Jihad. Al Qaeda's importance in the long run, Devji writes, lies not in its pioneering a new form of networked militancy... but instead in its fragmentation of traditional structures of Muslim authorlƒ3