Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharaoh / Edition 1

by Gilles Kepel

Overview

Gilles Kepel takes us into the world of the students, professionals, workers, and unemployed who are caught up in the Islamic movements of Egypt. Events that have riveted world attention—the first World Trade Center bombing, assassinations in Beirut, the attempt on the life of the Pope, the assassination of Sadat, and, in a new preface, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—are illuminated by this penetrating study.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520239340
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	05/01/2003
Edition description:	First Edition, With a New Preface for 2003
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Gilles Kepel is a member of the research faculty of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2003 Edition

Preface The Roots of Islamist Movements
Introduction Journey to the Ends of Islam

1. From One Ordeal to Another: 1954-66
In the Beginning Were the Camps
The 1965 'Plot'

2. 'Signposts'
Sayyid Qutb, Author and Martyr
Islamicism or Barbarism
What Is to Be Done?
The Ulema Intervene
Appendix: Works of Sayyid Qutb

3. The Society of Muslims
And God Came to Shukri
The New Hegira
Living Together in the Prophet's Way
Death of One of the Ulema

4. 'Al-Da'wa': Legalists Despite Themselves
The Purse-Strings
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Making Good Use of Parliament

5. The Vanguard of the 'Umma'
The Student Revolt
The • university of Large Numbers'
In the Shadow of the Regime 
Changer la Vie 
How to Be a Good Muslim 
For the Good of the Copts 
June 1981: Checkmate 

6. The Sermons of Sheikh Kishk 
A Sheikh's Childhood 
The Friday Sermon 

7. To Assassinate Pharaoh 
The Modem Tartars 
Holy War Against the Infidels 
Carrying Out God's Orders 
Killing Christians 
To Assassinate Pharaoh 

Conclusion 
The Religious and the Political 
Is the Islamicist Movement Inevitable? 
Facets of a Utopia 

Afterword: Ebb and Flow, 1981-1985 
The Carrot and the Stick 
Depoliticizing Islam 
Electoral Strategies 
Modes of Preaching 

Sources 
Chronology: 1928-1992 
Index 

Editorial Reviews

Within the past decade, a wave of religious fundamentalism has surged through the Islamic world. With the assassination of President Anwar Sadat as a focal point, Kepel examines the ideologies and activities of several Egyptian fundamentalist groups over 30 years. He describes the small but devoted religious groups determined to replace their barbaric regime with a government devoted to the true principles of Islam. The fervor of the Islamic revolutionaries, however, was equalled by their political naivete, and their success in killing Egypt's president led only to arrests and continued powerlessness. Although sympathetic to their religious concerns, Kepel asserts that most of the zealots were motivated more by the hopelessness and poverty of Egyptian life than by a desire to replace a modernist regime with pure Islam. A reliable, scholarly study of an important phenomenon. Elizabeth R. Hayford, President, Assoc. Colls. of the Midwest, Chicago

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