A Fundamental Fear

The fear and anxiety aroused by Islamism is not a myth, nor is it simply a consequence of terrorism or fundamentalism. Writing in 1997, before 9/11 and before the austerity that has bred a new generation of far right groups across Europe and the US, Bobby S. Sayyid warned of a spectre haunting western civilization. This ground breaking book, banned by the Malaysian government, is both an analysis of the conditions that have made 'Islamic fundamentalism' possible and a provocative account of the ways in which Muslim identities have, in the west, come to play an increasingly political role over the last two decades. It shows that the spectre of Islamism is more than just a continuation of political and cultural decolonization; it is the returned repressed proof that the western world order is just another civilization among many. In the wake of multiple crises, this is an essential, intricate and challenging story about why individuals chose to kill and be killed in the name of a faith that history had seemingly forgotten.