On 29/09/2007, Thijs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [ ] In contrast to most post-modern nation states, Islamic > fundamentalism offers the kind of warm hearth for which many shaken > Western souls might yearn
Maybe it would be more accurate to say that words like "fundamentalism" and "terrorism" offer the kind of warm hearth for which many shaken Western souls might yearn: the ability to lump together a wide range of social phenomena that they don't understand under a few convenient labels taken from American and European history, such as American Protestant fundamentalism and the French revolutionary Terror of the 1790s. Here are some possible alternatives (which I'm sure could be improved): Al Qaeda: Salafi nationalist guerilla network Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: Sunni reformist party Hamas: Sunni Palestinian nationalist party and militia Hizballah: Shia Lebanese nationalist party and militia Two things leap out of this sort of classification: the need to know something about Islam in order to know what the Arabic words mean, and the need to take nationalism seriously as a force that motivates opposition movements. Ben # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
