Dying for Faith: Religiously Motivated Violence in the Contemporary World Book

Acknowledgements vii

List of Contributors ix

List of Foreign Words xiii

Introduction xvii

Between Death of Faith and Dying for Faith: Reflections on Religion, Politics, Society and Violence Madawi Al-Rasheed Marat Shterin

Part I Understanding Religiously Motivated Violence

1 Apocalypse, History, and the Empire of Modernity John R. Hall 3

2 Martyrs and Martial Imagery: Exploring the Volatile Link Between Warfare Frames and Religious Violence Stuart Wright 17

3 Violence and New Religions: an Assessment of Problems, Progress, and Prospects in Understanding the NRM-Violence Connection J. Gordon Melton David G. Bromley 27

4 Of 'Cultists' and 'Martyrs': the Study of New Religious Movements and Suicide Terrorism in Conversation Massimo Introvigne 43

5 In God's Name: Practising Unconditional Love to the Death Eileen Barker 49

6 The Terror of Belief and the Belief in Terror: on Violently Serving God and Nation Abdelwahab El-Affendi 59

Part II Religiously Motivated Violence in Specific Contexts

7 Rituals of Life and Death: the Politics and Poetics of jihad in Saudi Arabia Madawi Al-Rasheed 79

8 The Islamic Debate over Self-inflicted Martyrdom Azam Tamimi 91

9 The Radical Nineties Revisited: Jihadi Discourses in Britain Jonathan Birt 105

10 al-Shahada: a Centre of the Shiite System of Belief Fouad Ibrahim 111

11 Urban Unrest and Non-religious Radicalization in Saudi Arabia Pascal Menoret 123

12 Bodily Punishments and the Spiritually Transcendent Dimensions of Violence: a Zen Buddhist Example Ian Reader 139

13 Jewish Millennialism and Violence Simon Dein 153

Part III Reporting Religiously Motivated Violence

14 SacralViolence: Cosmologies and Imaginaries of Killing Neil Whitehead 167

15 Journalists as Eyewitnesses Noha Mellor 177

16 Understanding Religious Violence: Can the Media be Trusted to Explain? Mark Huband 187

Notes 195

Bibliography 204

Index 219