Islamism And Islam

The book's main focus is on extremist ideologies and structural capabilities of violent non-state actors that employ terrorist means. Ideologies and organizational patterns are seen as the main comparative advantages of such groups in an asymmetrical confrontation at all levels, from the local to the global. Resolution of the key issues of the armed conflict is seen as essential, but this is not sufficient to undermine the foundations of terrorism generated by that conflict, unless the structural capabilities of militant groups are fully disrupted and the role of extremist ideologies in driving their terrorist activities is neutralized.

This book deals with the concept of post-Islamism from a mainly philosophical perspective, using political liberalism as elaborated by John Rawls as the key interpretive tool. What distinguishes this book from most scholarship in Iranian studies is that it primarily deals with the projects of Iranian intellectuals from a normative perspective as the concept is understood by analytical philosophers.