JIHAD THE TRAIL OF POLITICAL ISLAM

The late 20th century saw the emergence of an unexpected and extraordinary phenomenon culminating in a devastating onslaught on the West in 2001: Islamist political movements. Beginning in the early 1970s, militants revolted against the regimes in power across the Muslim world and exacerbated political conflicts internationally. Their jihad - or "Holy Struggle" - aimed to establish a global Islamic state based solely on a strict interpretation of the Qur'an. "Jihad" is a comprehensive attempt to follow the history and spread of this new political-religious phenomenon. Gilles Kepel has travelled throughout the Muslim world gathering documents, interviews and archival material inaccessible to most scholars.