Debating the War of Ideas

Eric Patterson, John P. Gallagher

2009

This book examines the role of the “War of Ideas” and its effects on international relations. Patterson explains that the War of Ideas is being fought both within Islamic societies and between some Muslim voices and the West. The War of Ideas is a struggle between moral claims, political philosophies, and historical interpretations that compete for assent within a society and across borders. Like the ideological component of the Cold War, the War of Ideas is about the fundamental principles of human society, from the basis for law and structures of governance to gender relations and the nexus of religion and politics. It is a global war: manythe foes have resorted to arms to protect and promote their worldview. This book brings together some of the most important voices from different partisan, theoretical, and religious perspectives to argue and forecast the next phase in the War of Ideas, including Karen Armstrong, Alan Dershowitz, James Turner Johnson, Maajid Nawaz, Walid Phares, Robert Spencer, and Bassam Tibi.

Table of Contents

Approaching the War of Ideas – John Gallagher and Eric Patterson
Jihadism’s War on Democracy – Walid Phares
“Dangerous Concepts” and the Struggle Within: Reclaiming State and Politics from the Islamists – Maajid Nawaz
Sharing With Equals: Modernity, Fundamentalism, and the Future – Karen Armstrong
Taqiyya: War and Deceit in Islam – Raymond Ibrahim
Debates over Just War and Jihad: Ideas, Interpretations, and Implications Across Cultures – James Turner Johnson
The War of Ideas: The Role of the “Afterlife” – Alan M. Dershowitz
The Clash of Civilizations? – Akbar Ahmed
Debating Absolutism and Pluralism in Contemporary Islam – Asma Afsaruddin
Democracy, Religion, and the War of Ideas – Eric Patterson
Inter-civilizational Conflict between Value Systems and Concepts of Order: Exploring the Islamic Humanist Potential for a Peace of Ideas – Bassam Tibi
The War of Ideas as Therapy: Reflections on a Eureka Moment in the “War on Terror” – Abdelwahab El-Affendi
Waging Trans-epistemological Warfare – Jarret M. Brachman
Counter-radicalization and Europe’s New Security Dilemma – Lorenzo Vidino
The Struggle for Islamism in the Levant: The Case of Northern Lebanon – Bernard Rougier
Dissonance and Denial: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War of Ideas – Robert Spencer

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