We should look to revolutionary France if we want to understand the source of Islamic State’s ideology and violence
Kevin McDonald
theguardian.com, Tuesday 9 September 2014
Over recent weeks there has been a constant background noise
suggesting that Islamic State (Isis) and its ideology are some sort of
throwback to a distant past. It is often framed in language such as that
used last week by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who said Isis was “medieval”. In fact, the terrorist group’s thinking is very much in a more modern, western tradition.
Clegg’s intervention is not surprising. Given the extreme violence of
Isis fighters and the frequent images of decapitated bodies, it is
understandable that we attempt to make sense of these acts as somehow
radically “other”.
But this does not necessarily help us understand what is at stake. In
particular, it tends to accept one of the core assertions of
contemporary jihadism, namely that it reaches back to the origins of
Islam. As one Isis supporter I follow on Twitter is fond of saying: “The
world changes; Islam doesn’t”.
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