Islam And The West

Ever since Samuel Huntington's 1993 article, "A Clash of Civilizations," which argued that the end of the Cold War had led to a world increasingly polarized by religious and ethnic identity, the phrase has been used as a quick way to explain tensions between the Arab and Western worlds—particularly since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

For Islamic extremists, whose supreme political ambition has been to restructure the Middle East and create Islamic states throughout the region, their goals have been elusive. In The War for Muslim Minds Professor Kepel focuses on recent developments in the Middle East and attempts to sort out the complex strands of ideology and resistance that have influenced the thinking of both Islamist and Western nations. Professor Kepel is one of the most cited experts on Islam in the United States and Europe, holds degrees in Arabic, English, and philosophy, a diploma from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, and doctorates in sociology and political science, is Chair of the Middle East and Mediterranean Studies Department and heads the post-graduate program in Arab and Muslim minds, the author of several influential books on Islam, including the critically acclaimed and definitive work on militant Islam, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam.