Bourg J. On Terrorism As Human Sacrifice

The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics
Faisal Devji Columbia University Press, 2009. x + 223 p.Sacred Violence: Torture, Terror, and Sovereignty
Paul W. Kahn University of Michigan Press, 2008. 178 ppIn the weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001, it has become easy to forget, large parts of the world were grappling sympathetically with the victims of the spectacular destruction of the World Trade Center and other devastation of that day. A spontaneous outpouring of compassion and empathy was palpable during those early days, both within the United States and outside its borders. We are all Americans, the French and Italian dailies famously declared. Before such good will was tragically squandered by unilateral American actions, the arresting images of 9/11, instantaneously transmitted around the globe, created a simultaneously experienced world event and invited international reflection on its meaning to us, whoever we were as the century opened.