David C. Rapoport

One of the earliest works available to identify terrorists with religious violence. The contribution of Richard Martin notes that "the association of violence with religion, though not consistent, has nonetheless been persistent in history" (p. 349). Martin states: "one of the most urgent items of discussion among modern students of violent social behavior is to understand how religious groups. . . such as the Jihadi movements in the Muslim Middle East, and other violent religious groups, justify their actions. Quite often the contextual, cultural determinants of religious discourses on violence are alien to Western scholarly discourse and we are likely to substitute our own reference frames for them" (p. 365).

One instructive incident is the assassination of President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt on October 6, 1981. "He seemed to be a rational and desirable alternative to the anti-Western proponents of violent recourse in Middle Easter politics" (p. 365). In short, "the events which led to Sadat's assassination and the discussions that followed it are framed by the signal texts and events in early Islamic civilization" (p. 366). One of the discussion points was a fatwa, which based on Islamic reasoning, concluded that Sadat should die. Martin addresses a key issue in that Westeners tend to misunderstand Islamic reasoning. "Too often the texts of the past and other civilizations are appropriated for our own scholarly discourses--out of context, as it were--and thus not understood, especially when they involve conflict and violence" (p. 367).

In conclusion, Islamic religious violence should be understood for what it is: Islamic and violent.… (mehr)