All Jihad Is Local: the Micro-Politics of Militant Islamism in 1980s Lebanon and Beyond

All Jihad Is Local: the Micro-Politics of Militant Islamism in 1980s Lebanon and Beyond

Friday, 18 February 2022 - 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Venue: 
INVESTCORP THEATRE/ ZOOM Online Webinar
Speaker(s): 
Raphael Lefevre (Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford and Research Associate at the University of Aarhus)
Series: 
Middle East Centre Friday Seminar Series

Biography:

Raphaël Lefèvre investigates Islamist armed groups in the Middle East. His latest book is Jihad in the City: Militant Islamism and Contentious Politics in Tripoli (Cambridge University Press, 2021). He is also the author of Ashes of Hama, the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria (Oxford University Press, 2013). His PhD thesis which he did at the University of Cambridge was awarded the Bill Gates Sr Prize by the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Syrian Studies Association Prize.

Abstract:

"Militant Islamists are often assumed to be driven by global goals and transnational networks. But this narrative misses a crucial point: from Tawhid during the Lebanese civil war to Tahrir al-Sham in the current Syrian conflict, Islamist armed groups often seek to recruit and mobilize local communities not appealed by their religious ideology - certain tribes, social classes, and neighbourhoods. Why? How do they go about it? And to what extent, then, is all Islamist politics local?"

Registration essential: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_suDVxZ8jSeCsKGFw1Y938A