9/11 and Islam: Terrorism, state violence and dialogue

Abstract

This thesis critically explores the dominant discourse on Islamic terrorism. Taking the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre as the point of departure, it examines a range of neoconservative literature in order to gain a better understanding of the historical and political conditions that gave rise to the present policy impasse concerning Islamic nations. It critically examines how neoconservative theories and policies shaped and influenced the rationalisation behind the present war on terror and American foreign policy. Based on that understanding, this thesis focuses on whether different theories of dialogue can help us to appreciate adequately the politics of justice that Political Islam seeks, and accordingly a range of such theories are examined.Through critical analysis of a number of neoconservative works, this thesis establishes a formative link between neoconservative theories and the current policy failure. It is also argued that neoconservative theories, perhaps due to their indulgence in the orthodoxies of International Relations ontology, have failed to extend the scope of this debate beyond the narrow discourse effectively captured by the Islamic Other vs. Civilised Us dichotomy. In order to counter adequately conservative explanations and policy discourse, this thesis provides alternative analysis of the development of Islam within the colonial and post-colonial experiences of Muslim communities, particularly in the Middle East. This alternative analysis seeks to broaden the debate and bring within hearing alternative voices that define Islam as both non-monolithic and conciliatory in its practice and outlook. In this context it suggests a formative link between these historico-political experiences and the rise of political Islam. It is further demonstrated that what contributed to the emergence of Islam as a credible and effective political force to challenge political hegemony in the Middle East was indeed the absence of any meaningful political alternative such as nationalism, Western liberalism, or republicanism. Consequently, political Islam nudged the political constituency into greater participation in the public sphere, and initiated a process of political dialogue that the polity of many Muslim states engaged in. Since the justice that political Islam avowedly seeks is dressed in political dialogue, only by thoroughly exploring and mapping out the scope and limits of the politics of dialogue can one expect to understand adequately the nature of this justice and its attendant politics. Accordingly, this thesis examines a range of theories of dialogue, and seeks to redress some of the grave anomalies in the current political framework, in order that readers – politicians, students, community representatives, lawmakers – may look to means of overcoming the current policy impasse.