The fear and anxiety aroused by Islamism is not a myth, nor is it simply a consequence of terrorism or fundamentalism.
Writing in 1997, before 9/11 and before the austerity that has bred a new generation of far right groups across Europe and the US, S. Sayyid warned of a spectre haunting Western civilization. This groundbreaking book, banned by the Malaysian government, is both an analysis of the conditions that have made 'Islamic fundamentalism' possible and a provocative account of the ways in which Muslim identities have come to play an increasingly political role throughout the world.
This is a pioneering, provocative and intricately crafted study, which shows the challenge of Islamism is not only geopolitical or even cultural but also epistemological.

S. Sayyid is a Reader in School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds, UK.
S. Sayyid is a reader in rhetoric at the University of Leeds. He is the founding editor of ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies. His publications include Recalling the Caliphate and the volume (co-edited with AbdoolKarim Vakil) Thinking through Islamophobia.

Foreword by Hamid Dabashi
Preface to the Critique Influence Change Edition
Acknowledgements
Preface to the Second Edition
Prologue: The Return of the Repressed
1. Framing Fundamentalism
2. Thinking Islamism, (Re)thinking Islamism
3. Kemalism and Politicization of Islam
4. Islam, Modernity and the West
5. Islamism and the Limits of the Invisible Empire
Epiloque: Islamism/Eurocentrism
Bibliography
Index