1. Introduction
2. On the Failure and Persistence of Jihad A. H. Abdel Salam and
Alex de Waal
3. Islamism, Jihad, and State Power in Sudan Alex de Waal and A. H.
Abdel Salam
4. Islamic Dynamics in the Somali Civil War Roland Marchal
5. The Promise and Peril of Islamic Voluntarism M. A. Mohamed
Salih
6. The Politics of Destabilization in the Horn, 1989-2001 Alex de
Waal
7. Africa, Islamism, and America's "War on Terror" After September
11 Alex de Waal
A hard-hitting and sober analysis of Islamic groups and their role in international politics.
Alex de Waal is a director of Justice Africa, a London-based organization that supports human rights, peace, and democracy in Africa. He is author of many books and articles, including Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa (IUP, 1997).
De Waal, a well-known activist and scholar of human rights in
Africa, has put together a detailed, provocative book on the 1989,
2003 period, when Sudan and Somalia served as a laboratory for
political Islam. De Waal and Sudanese human rights specialist A. H.
Abdel Salam trace the failure and persistence of jihad and specific
outcomes in Sudan. They argue that Islamists failed to overcome
some major theoretical and practical weaknesses. The Somali civil
war receives attention from French scholar Roland Marchal; M. A.
Mohamed Salih writes on Islamic NGOs and the Somali civil war.
Although Islamists have mounted small-scale projects (local social
mobilization has both provided strength and proven adaptability),
Islamic civil society as expressed in neo-fundamentalist Islamism
is inherently limited, impeding freedom of expression and
intellectual creativity. Mental closure, de Waal argues, is not
inherent in Islamism itself, however. Muslims must exercise
intellectual leadership in order to create a more open society, and
external adversaries must allow space for this debate. Readers may
disagree with the editor's assertion, The United States is so
powerful that it no longer needs to know much about the rest of the
world and adapt its power to local realities. Summing Up:
Recommended. General readers and undergraduate collections.
*Choice*
De Waal, a well-known activist and scholar of human rights in
Africa, has put together a detailed, provocative book on the 1989,
2003 period, when Sudan and Somalia served as a laboratory for
political Islam. . . . Recommended. General readers and
undergraduate collections.June 2005
*Choice*
Essentially, this work . . . is a significant effort that will
further our understanding of the mechanisms of change that have
been the lot of North East Africa since the twilight of the
twentieth century.Vol. 10.1-2 Sp & F 2008
*Lagos State University*
. . . a scholarly and critical analysis of Islamism in Sudan and
the Horn of Africa, linking it with its roots in Egypt and
unravelling its ideological, sociological and political facets.
*BBC World Service*
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