{"product_id":"awakening-islam-the-politics-of-religious-dissent-in-contemporary-saudi-arabia-9780674049642","title":"Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia","description":"\u003cp\u003eAmidst the roil of war and instability across the Middle East  the West is still searching for ways to understand the Islamic world. Stphane Lacroix has now given us a penetrating look at the political dynamics of Saudi Arabia  one of the most opaque of Muslim countries and the place that gave birth to Osama bin Laden.  The result is a history that has never been told before. Lacroix shows how thousands of Islamist militants from Egypt  Syria  and other Middle Eastern countries  starting in the 1950s  escaped persecution and found refuge in Saudi Arabia  where they were integrated into the core of key state institutions and society. The transformative result was the Sahwa  or Islamic Awakening  an indigenous social movement that blended political activism with local religious ideas. Awakening Islam offers a pioneering analysis of how the movement became an essential element of Saudi society  and why  in the late 1980s  it turned against the very state that had nurtured it. Though the Sahwa Insurrection failed  it has bequeathed the world two very different  and very determined  heirs: the Islamo-liberals  who seek an Islamic constitutional monarchy through peaceful activism  and the neo-jihadis  supporters of bin Ladens violent campaign.  Awakening Islam is built upon seldom-seen documents in Arabic  numerous travels through the country  and interviews with an unprecedented number of Saudi Islamists across the ranks of todays movement. The result affords unique insight into a closed culture and its potent brand of Islam  which has been exported across the world and which remains dangerously misunderstood.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67598649786421,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674049640","price":42.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674049642.jpg?v=1790927302","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/awakening-islam-the-politics-of-religious-dissent-in-contemporary-saudi-arabia-9780674049642","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}