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Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Translated by Anthony F. Roberts. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002. Hardcover, $20.97.
Gilles Kepel presents a thorough analysis of political Islam from its expansion in the 1970s to its decline beginning in the 1990s. He attributes the rise of political Islam to: (1) the failure of the nationalist project, primarily, in the Arab countries, such as Egypt and Algeria; and (2) the repression that political Islamists suffered under some nationalist regimes. Kepel analyzes political Islam in several countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Turkey. He also shows the political and economic underpinnings that led to the rise of the Islamist movement. Kepel also provides a comparative analysis around two main theses: First, in countries where the leadership of the Islamist movement was able to unite the poor...