Book contents
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
Summary
The world of Islam finds itself in a geo-civil war extended to the West. In this context violence is carried out in the name of God. Western opinion leaders fail to understand what is going on. Paul Cliteur is an exception. In this most valuable book he labels this phenomenon “theoterrorism”. The term not only refers to physical terror equally against non-Muslims and enlightened Muslims, it is also an assault on two of the most valuable accomplishments of Western civilization: secularity/laïcité and freedom of expression. True, terror exists in all religions, but Islamic theoterrorism is directed particularly against secular cultural modernity.
Cliteur's book informs us about one of the most lethal weapons of Islamic theoterrorism: the accusation of Islamophobia. In a breathtaking tour that stretches from the Rudi Carrell case to the Rushdie affair, Paul Cliteur illuminates us about the way “modern hostage taking” takes place; it is not restricted to physical capture of a person. In my dialogue with Cliteur on this book I proposed to go further and view the accusation of Islamophobia figuratively as an instrument of hostage taking. Islamist and Muslim leaders coerce Western societies and they have been successful in imposing their will. As a Muslim who admires Western values I myself witness and deplore the Western response to this kind of Islamic theoterrorism: submission and cowardliness. Theoterrorism is far more than the extremism of violence.
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- Theoterrorism v. Freedom of SpeechFrom Incident to Precedent, pp. 9 - 10Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019
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