Bulletin n. 1/2017 | ||
June 2017 | ||
Barbato Mariano, Hantscher Sinja, Lederer Markus |
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Imagining Jihad | ||
in Global Affairs , Volume 2, Issue 4 , 2016 , 419-429 | ||
The article examines how the Islamic State (IS) has evolved into a community- and initial state-building project. Using Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined community” (Anderson, B. [1983]. Imagined communities. London: Verso), we claim that IS is about to construct an aggressive Sunni national identity with a specific territorial claim, which could have a high impact on international order. Comparing nationalism and Islamism allows us to understand the strong appeal of the latter much better than a focus on religion alone. | ||