Islam by West for West

Malise Ruthven reviews the following books;

Arguing the Just War in Islam
by John Kelsay

Islam: Past, Present and Future
by Hans Küng

Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice
by Michael Bonner

Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Secularism Confronts Islam
by Olivier Roy

As indicators for policy guidelines, Küng's and Roy's analyses make sense—but within crucial limits. There remains a strong body of evidence that the terrorist atrocity of July 2005 in London, and subsequent unsuccessful attempts, were inspired, at least partly, by radical preachers working out of British mosques. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and exporter of the fundamentalist Sunni ideology known as Wahhabism, may be actively opposed to jihadism in its present forms. But as Roy previously explained in Globalized Islam, the oil-rich kingdom and neighboring Gulf states have helped to extend Wahhabi or Salafist (fundamentalist) influence "through an intensive outpouring of fatwas and short conferences or lectures, spread through the internet, television stations...or via cheap booklets." These products, he argued, are

an important part of the curriculum of worldwide Muslim institutions that are subsidized by Gulf money. Through informal networks of disciples and former students, [Wahhabi preachers] reach a lay audience far larger than the madrasas [seminaries] in which they teach.[1]

A recent survey of jihadists in Europe concluded that "activists invest considerable time and energy in self-study of Wahhabi Islam and subsequently the jihadi strain of Salafism."[2]

There are countervailing tendencies, for example in the appeal of Sufi ideas and religious disciplines (to which Wahhabis are adamantly opposed) in some literary and artistic circles, and in related mystical traditions imported from Indo-Pakistan. But so long as there remains a generation of European Muslims who feel alienated from their parents' traditions yet rejected by the wider society, the style of religiosity supported from Arabia will remain a powerful "ultramontane" force.

A lot of these books seem to repeat the same theme over and over again- hardly adding any original insight into the debate.