Militant Islam

Militant Islam Militant Islam provides an innovative sociological framework for understanding the rise and character of recent Islamic militancy. It takes a sys- tematic approach to the phenomenon, incorporating examples from around the world. A number of sociological concepts and theories are applied to militants including those associated with social closure, social movements, nationalism, risk, fear and ‘decivilising’. These are examined within three main themes; characteristics of militant Islam, multi-layered causes and the consequences of militancy, in particular Western reactions within the ‘war on terror’. Interrelationships between religious and secular behaviour, ‘terrorism’ and ‘counter-terrorism’, popular support and opposition are explored. Throughout the book, examples from across Muslim societies and communities are drawn upon, enabling the popular tendency to con- centrate upon ‘al-Qa’ida’ and the Middle East to be challenged. This book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Political Science and International Relations, in particular those taking courses on Islam, religion, terrorism, political violence and related regional studies. Stephen Vertigans is Reader in Sociology at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He has written and co-written a series of books, articles and conference papers on Muslim communities, terrorism and religion, espe- cially resurgent and militant Islam, and is currently researching a range of terror groups across the world. Militant Islam A sociology of characteristics, causes and consequences Stephen Vertigans With contributions from Donncha Marron and Philip W. Sutton First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2009 Stephen Vertigans; individual chapters the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Vertigans, Stephen. Militant Islam: a sociology of characteristics, causes and consequences/ Stephen Vertigans with contributions from Donncha Marron and Philip W. Sutton. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Terrorism—Social aspects. 2. Islamic fundamentalism—Social aspects. 3. War on Terrorism, 2001—Social aspects. I. Marron, Donncha. II. Sutton, Philip W. III. Title. HV6431.V464 2008 303.6′25—dc22 2008011385 ISBN 0-203-89107-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–41245–5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–41246–3 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–89107–4 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–41245–2 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–41246–9 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–89107–0 (ebk) Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 The al-Qa’ida phenomenon and beyond: myths and realities 9 2 Militant Islam in local, national and transnational networks 35 PHILIP W. SUTTON AND STEPHEN VERTIGANS 3 Reinterpreting the umma: Islamic nationalism and transnationalism 55 4 Social closure and takfir: the interrelationship between secular and militant ‘switchmen’ 85 5 Challenging the risk society: contextualizing the impact of ‘Islamic’ terrorism 113 DONNCHA MARRON 6 Reacting to the militant risk: decivilizing in the name of civilization? 138 7 Conclusion 162 Notes 172 Bibliography 180 Index 204 Acknowledgements A number of people have been involved in the production of this book whose contributions I would like to acknowledge. The original proposal for Militant Islam was developed with Phil Sutton. Due to other commitments, his contribution to the final manu- script has been limited to Chapter 2. It has been a pleasure to work with Phil on the early stages of this and other projects but I hope this book is at least close to our original aims. I am also extremely grateful to Donncha Marron who wrote Chapter 5 and provided insightful comments as the book evolved. I am also appreciative of detailed analyses provided by Chris Thorpe and Val Vertigans. Much of the material has been discussed with a range of audiences at other universities, conferences and student forums, and their observations played an important part in the development of the central ideas. Finally, the book would not have been possible without the sympathetic support of Joe Whiting and assistance of Natalja Mortensen and Suzanne Chilestone at Routledge. Earlier versions of Chapters 2 and 4 appeared, respectively, as Sutton, P. W. and Vertigans, S. (2006) ‘Islamic “New Social Movements”? al-Qa’ida, Radical Islam and Social Movement Theory’, Mobilization: An International Journal of Social Movement Research, 11(1): 101–116, and Vertigans, S. (2007) ‘Militant Islam and Weber’s Social Closure: Interrelated Secular and Religious Codes of Exclusion’, Contemporary Islam 1(4): 303–321. Some of the material included in the Introduction and Chapter 1 appeared in Vertigans, S. (2007) ‘Routes into “Islamic” Terrorism: Dead Ends and Spaghetti Junctions’, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 1(2): 447–59. Introduction Beyond ‘al-Qa’ida’ and politics: a sociological contribution? Since 2001, studies of militancy associated with Islam have shifted atten - tion from a generic ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ to domination by the spectre of al-Qa’ida. This form of militancy seems ubiquitous, yet without a distinct, substantive or quantifiable core, the same entity can appear nowhere. Populist coverage of the phenomena has tended to replicate these misapprehensions, understandably concentrating upon terror attacks and their physical impact. Gruesome images of dead Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, agnostics, men, women, children, government officials, police officers, military personnel, bank employees, pop singers, journalists, authors, medical doctors, university students, school pupils, wedding guests and tourists have all been transmitted across the world. These pictures and the tendency to connect all acts of political violence committed by Muslims to a generic ‘al-Qa’ida’,1 have contributed to an inflation of a specific ‘Islamic threat’. To some extent, this is a consequence of political discourse in the West and media reporting. However, as the plethora of publications during these early years of the twenty-first century indicates, academics have also been heavily instrumental in these processes of inflation. Conse - quently, the obvious question to commence this book with is: Why is yet another text about militant Islam required? First, the overwhelming majority of publications about militant Islam are written from the realms of politics, international relations and area studies. From this analysis, it is possible to gain an understanding about the role of power and nation-states, the political decisions, opportunities, con- straints and threats that have been instrumental within militancy today. By comparison, sociological contributions have been minimal.2 Consequently, the impact of social processes and activities behind people becoming militants and such groups forming has been underexplored. Through applying sociological ways of thinking, it is argued that changes in religious and secular processes and cross-cutting allegiances within societies and global relations can be highlighted and levels of understanding enhanced. In so doing, a sociological approach can expand upon other studies that tend to overrely upon the causal analysis of economic, political and psychological 2 Introduction factors. It is argued that changes, and in particular the perceptions of them, have led to a re-evaluation of both Islam and Western forms of discourse. Second, sociological theories and concepts can help to address the nor- mative tendency to condemn3 and personalize accounts by illuminating processes and experiences that have hitherto remained neglected. Such inat- tention may be partly explained by the traditional reluctance for sociologists to examine political violence.4 The neglect is compounded when violence is associated with religion which has ‘been banished to the sidelines in the contemporary field of theoretical struggle’ (Calhoun 1999: 237). And, the secularist tradition within sociology can be considered to have contributed to many Western academics being ‘confused and bewildered by religious crusaders’ (Oberschall 2004: 34) with religion considered, Beckford (2003) suggests, as marginal or deviant phenomena. Beckford (2003: 151) notes that ‘exponents of social theory have shown little interest in religious movements … studies of religious movements have failed to exercise significant influence on social theory.’ As part of this intra-disciplinary shift towards inner ‘specialisms’, Islam within sociology has become epistemologically isolated as a ‘religion’ to the neglect of interrelated social, cultural, political and economic activities and relations. This is not, however, to suggest that this text will pro- vide a comprehensive review of sociological contributions to the study

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