1 Terrorists? Terrorism?

2 Terrorism is a political strategy, not a creed  We can reasonably define that strategy as asymmetrical deployment of threats and violence against enemies using means that fall outside the forms of political struggle routinely operating within some current regime.  A great variety of individuals and groups engage in terror, thus defined, from time to time, most often alternating terror with other political strategies or with political inaction.  Groups and networks specializing in terror and no other forms of political action do sometimes form, but they typically remain unstable and ephemeral.  Most groups and networks that engage in terror overlap extensively with government-employed and government-backed specialists in coercion – armies, police, militias, paramilitaries, and the like.  Even when they organize in opposition to existing governments, specialists in coercion typically adopt forms of organization, external connections, and sources of supply resembling those of government-employed specialists.  Most uses of terror actually occur as complements or by-products of struggles in which participants – often including the so-called terrorists – are simultaneously or successively engaging in other more routine varieties of political claim making. (Tilly (Tilly, Terror, Terrorism, Terrorists, 2002),

3 "Bin Laden and Other Thoroughly Modern Muslims" Charles Kurzman, Ch. 42, pp

4 Islamists, Radical Islamists, and Islamic liberalism  Islamists seek to regain righteousness of early yrs of Islam and implement sharia, either by using the state to enforce it or by convincing Muslims to abide by norms of own accord  Radical Islamists have much in common w/ Islamic liberalism:  Both seek to modernize society and politics, recasting tradition in modern molds  Both see multiple ways to be modern and don't equate modernity w/ Western culture

5 By contrast with Radical Islamists such as Al Qaeda, traditionalists such as the Taliban:  Draw on less educated sectors of society  Believe in mystical and personal authority and are skeptical of modern organizational forms  "For this reason, traditionalist movements are finding it difficult to survive and occupy only isolated pockets of Muslim society" (pp )

6 The Islamists Roots in Secular Education  Many Islamists have university (secular) rather than seminary (religious) educations  Bin Laden (leader of Al Qaeda) held a civil engineering degree, although he issued fatwas (religious decrees) as if he were a seminary educated Islamic scholar  Islamists have railed against seminary-trained scholars as out of touch and politically inactive  Seminaries are considered "backward" by Islamists  College-educated Muslims have increasingly been analyzing sacred texts in a "do it yourself" kind of theology

7 There's great diversity in Islamic opinion and Islamic authority  Governments have taken a role in establishing their own official religious authorities and advancing their own visions of the proper relationship between Islam and the state, through textbooks, for example  There is no universally recognized arbiter to resolve Islamic debates  Any college graduate in a cave can claim to speak for Islam

8 Islamist political platforms share much with Western modernity.  Islamists envision overturning tradition in politics, social relations, and religious practices  Islamists are hostile to monarchies, such as the Saudi dynasty in Arabia  Islamists favor egalitarian meritocracy, as opposed to inherited social hierarchies  e.g., Bin Laden combined traditional grievances such as injustice, corruption, oppression, and self-defense with contemporary, secular demands such as economic development, human rights and national self-determination

9 Western biases tend to wrongly lump Khomeni's Iran together w/ the Taliban in Afghanistan  Both claimed to be building Islamic states, but Iran is a modern state and Afghanistan is not  Islamic Republic of Iran copied global norms by writing constitution, ratifying it with a referendum w/ full adult suffrage, holding elections, conducting census, etc.  vs. the traditionalist Taliban, which preferred informal and personal administration to the rule-bound bureaucracies favored by modern states  On the issue of gender, Taliban barred girls from school, while the Iranian Islamic Republic more than doubled girls education levels

10 In ideology and also in practice, bin Laden/Al Qaeda and other radical Islamists mirror Western trends  Al Qaeda operates globally like a TNC, with affiliates and subsidiaries, strategic partners, commodity chains, standardized training, off-shore financing  Insiders call it "the company"  It's a bureaucratic organization, with a modernized communications strategy

11 Radical Islamists are a minority within Islam  Surveys consistently show that most Muslims oppose Islamists and their goals  Islamists rarely fare well in free/partially free elections  However, the US-led war of terror may inadvertently benefit Islamists  The modernization of Muslim societies promoted by the US and its allies as a buffer against traditionalism may wind up fueling Islamism  Modern schools produce Islamists as well as liberals  Modern businesses fund Islamist as well as other causes  Modern communications can broadcast Islamist as well as other messages  Modernity may take many forms besides Western culture

12 “The Christian Revolution” Philip Jenkins, Ch. 46, pp

13 The Transformation of Christianity  Christianity, long identified as religion of West or Global North, of white nations, of "the haves," is declining in North America/Europe, but expanding in the Global South

14 The New Face of Christianity  The typical contemporary Christian is in a Nigerian or Brazilian favela  Many of fastest-growing countries in world are predominantly Christian or have very sizeable Christian minorities  Traditionally Christian states in the West/North have declining birthrates  Extrapolating statistics to the year 2025, there would be about 2.6 billion Christians, of whom 633 mil would live in Africa, 640 mil in Latin America, and 460 mil in Asia  Europe, with 555 mil, would slip to third place  Africa and Latin America will together account for half of the Christians in the world

15 A New Christian Synthesis?  A new synthesis, uniting Christians in the Global South with those in the West/North, is unlikely, considering the critical differences between their social bases  Future members of Southern dominated church are likely to be poorer, leading some Western Christians to expect a growth in liberation theology  liberation theology: fervently liberal, activist and revolutionary vision of Christianity that looks to “liberate” the poor through political action, it grew enormously in Brazil in the 1960s  Southern Christians are far more conservative

16 Christianity in Global South vs. North (Europe & North America)  Southern Christians are far more Conservative in terms of belief and moral teaching  Roman Catholics, of a traditionalist kind, radical Protestant sects, evangelical or Pentecostal  Strong supernatural orientation…more interested in personal salvation than radical politics  Adapting Christian belief to local traditions, groups have titles like "African indigenous churches"  Newer churches preach deep personal faith and communal orthodoxy, mysticism and Puritanism, all founded on clear scriptural authority  Preach visions that seem simplistically charismatic, visionary and apocalyptic  In this thought world, prophecy is an everyday reality  It has much in common with those of medieval or early modern European times

17 Still, researchers have missed these trends, too focused on political movements like fascism and communism  Meanwhile, Pentecostalism is flourishing, and may be considered the most successful social movement of the past century  Pentecostalism and related charismatic movements represent one of the fastest-growing segments of global Christianity. At least a quarter of the world's 2 billion Christians are thought to be members of these lively, highly personal faiths, which emphasize such spiritually renewing "gifts of the Holy Spirit" as speaking in tongues, divine healing and prophesying. Even more than other Christians, pentecostals and other renewalists believe that God, acting through the Holy Spirit, continues to play a direct, active role in everyday life.  And there are even more Catholics than Pentecostals

18 Medieval Parallels – A New Christendom?  Medieval Europe considered an age of faith, passionate spirituality, based on unity that transcended kingdoms or empires  Laws of nations lasted only as long as nations themselves, while Christendom offered a higher set of standards, which alone could claim universality  Christianity was a primary form of cultural reference

19 Ultimately, Christianity collapsed in the face of secular nationalism  A connection between religion and political order was no longer assumed

20 By start of 21st century, the nation- state, the whole Westphalian system, came under challenge  Technology played a key role  In Europe, loyalty to nation is being replaced by identification with larger entities (Europe) or smaller (regions or ethnic groups)  Decline of states in face of globalization has parallels with the cosmopolitan world of the Middle Ages, leading some to expect the emergence of some supranational movement or ideology

21 Christianity in context -- different meanings of Christianity in Global South vs. North  Globalization may not signal American imperialism but a new Christendom, based in the global South  Although Latin America and Africa are separated geographically and differ in terms of institutional structures, both confront similar colonial legacies, fundamentally separating the experiences of Northern and Southern churches  Christians in the South read the Bible in a way that makes Christianity look like a wholly different religion from the faith of prosperous advanced countries of Europe and North America  Responding to wholly different social conditions, Christians in the global South are comfortable with biblical notions of the supernatural and prophecy – and with martyrdom, oppression and exile  The meaning of the text is shaped by social context