Rational Choice and Religious Terrorism
Chapter summary While for many, the term “rational choice” signifies a normative judgment about an individual’s choices, it presents a much different reality for scholars. For social scientists, it refers[…]
Chapter summary While for many, the term “rational choice” signifies a normative judgment about an individual’s choices, it presents a much different reality for scholars. For social scientists, it refers[…]
Chapter summary Although highly disputed, the French-American philosophical anthropologist René Girard’s theory of violence and archaic religion has had a major impact on the current theoretical discussion. From the 1960s[…]
Chapter summary “The Devoted Actor” is a theoretical framework developed by a group of scholars and policymakers at ARTIS International – a nonprofit group that uses social science research to[…]
Chapter summary What causes terrorism and how can it be prevented? This is one of the great political questions of our time and over the last decade and a half,[…]
Chapter summary Politicians, public officials, and scholars have been scrupulous, for the most part, in denying any direct causal relationship between Islam and terrorism, and more generally between being religious[…]
Chapter summary The recent frequency of Islamist militant attacks in the name of God has added fuel to a long-standing Western notion that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote[…]
Chapter summary In the wake of any terrorist attack, the immediate questions are who and why – who would do such a thing, and why they would want to do[…]
Publisher’s description How has ISIS been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to[…]
Publisher’s description The virulent new brand of Islamic extremism threatening the West In November 2015, ISIS terrorists massacred scores of people in Paris with coordinated attacks on the Bataclan concert[…]
Publisher’s description There is currently much discussion regarding the causes of terrorist acts, as well as the connection between terrorism and religion. Terrorism is attributed either to religious ‘fanaticism’ or,[…]