Secularism

Author: Mamdouh Sheikh Publication date: 2026 Category: Political Sciences Publisher: Thinkers International for Publishing and Distribution Number of pages: 180 Format: Paperback Summary: After September 11, 2001, the world witnessed one of the largest waves of "intellectual stereotyping" of the idea of terrorism through printed and visual products that automatically link terrorism with Islam, or with specific interpretations of Islam, or with Arabs. In contrast, there was a growing trend re-evaluating the concept of modern terrorism: its definition and sources. This trend benefited from various Western outputs — written and readable — that connect this terrorism with Western phenomena, foremost among them the period of terrorist rule in the history of the French Revolution, and more broadly: Western secular terrorism. France experienced in the 1980s a review regarding the French Revolution itself, reflecting a multi-faceted crisis: cognitive, political, moral, and cultural. Some French intellectuals saw a link between the September 11 attacks and the terrorism of the "French Revolution"!!! No one thought — until a few years ago — of drawing this link between the "French Revolution" and "terrorism," even as a "point of view," and perhaps the author of these lines was among the few who attempted to do so early on.