Jihad, Radical Islam, and the New Atheism

About this book

Is Islam inherently a 'problem'? For influential New Atheists such as Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Richard Dawkins, the answer is an emphatic yes, largely because of the Islamic doctrine of jihad. According to this view, when al-Qaeda plotted 9/11 or ISIS planned any one of its recent terrorist attacks, they were manifesting the letter of Islamic scripture. Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism interrogates this claim by comparing the conflicting interpretations of jihad offered by mainstream Muslim scholars, violent Muslim radicals, and New Atheists. Mohammad Hassan Khalil considers contemporary Muslim terrorism to be a grave problem that we must now confront. He shows, however, that the explanations offered for this phenomenon by certain prominent New Atheists are highly problematic, and that their own interpretations of Islam overstep those of even radicals such as Osama bin Laden. This book offers an accessible examination of one of the most pressing issues of our day.