The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Terrorism

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, alternately, to political and economic factors, with religion more or less dismissed as a secondary factor. The Cambridge Companion to Religion and Terrorism examines this complex relationship between religion and terrorism phenomenon through a collection of essays freshly written for this volume. Bringing varying approaches to the topic, from the theoretical to the empirical, the Companion includes an array of subjects, such as radicalization, suicide bombing, and rational choice, as well as specific case studies. The result is a richly textured collection that prompts readers to critically consider the cluster of phenomena that we have come to refer to as 'terrorism,' and terrorism's relationship with the similarly problematic set of phenomena that we call 'religion.'

Contents

1. Does Religion Cause Terrorism?
   Mark Juergensmeyer
2. Religion, Violence, Nonsense, and Power
   William T. Cavanaugh
3. Discounting Religion in the Explanation of Homegrown Terrorism: A Critique
   Lorne L. Dawson
4. Religion, Radicalization and the Causes of Terrorism
   Tom Mills and David Miller
5. The Role of the Devoted Actor in War, Revolution, and Terrorism
   Scott Atran
6. Girard on Apocalypse and Terrorism
   Espen Dahl
7. Rational Choice and Religious Terrorism: Its Bases, Applications, and Future Directions
   Stephen Nemeth
8. Terror as Sacrificial Ritual? A Discussion of (Neo-)Durkheimian Approaches to Suicide Bombing
   Lorenz Graitl
9. Imitations of Terror: Applying a Retro Style of Analysis to the Religion-Terrorism Nexus
   James R. Lewis
10. The LTTE: A Nonreligious, Political, Martial Movement for Establishing the Right of Self-Determination of Īlattamils
    Peter Schalk
11. The Role of Religion in al-Qaeda’s Violence
    Pieter Nanninga
12. Meanings of Savagery: Terror, Religion and the Islamic State
    Pieter Nanninga
13. Where’s Charlie? The Discourse of Religious Violence in France Post-7/1/2015
    Per-erik Nilsson
14. Understanding the Threat of the Islamic State in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan
    Meerim Aitkulova
15. Terror and the Screen: Keeping the Relationship of Good and Bad Virtual
    Christopher Hartney
16. Understanding Falun Gong’s Martyrdom Strategy as Spiritual Terrorism
    James R. Lewis and Nicole S. D’amico