Why is Islamic Radicalism on the Rise? A New Book Tackles Complex Issues

A new book by a Birmingham academic looks at the psychological, sociological and political causes and consequences of the recent terrorist attacks on Western Europe. 

Since the train bombings in Madrid in 2004, and the suicide bombings in London in July 2005, the subject of Islamic political radicalism in Europe has come to the fore. Dr Tahir Abbas’s edited collection examines this phenomenon in Europe and its dramatic growth over the last few years.  The book provides an analysis of events and experiences in different European nation states with a detailed focus on Britain.

Contributors to the book include analysts, leading academics, commentators, activists and practitioners who discuss the causes of radicalism, the impact of economic and social exclusion on identity issues, the crisis of masculinity, Islamophobia, the media, Iraq, and the ‘war on terror’.

The book was officially launched by Baroness Kishwer Falkner, at the Moses Room, House of Lords, on 22 January 2007.

Tahir Abbas is Reader in Sociology and Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Culture at the University of Birmingham.  His main areas of expertise are race equality, ethnicity, multiculturalism and British Muslims.  He is author of The Education of British South Asians (2004) and editor of Muslim Britain (2005).

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Notes to Editors

The book is available from Edinburgh University Press. 

For further information

Anna Mitchell, Press Officer, University of Birmingham, tel 0121 414 6029.