Why has the turn of the twenty-first century been rocked by a new religious rebellion? From al Qaeda to Christian militias to insurgents in Iraq, a strident new religious activism has seized the imaginations of political rebels around the world. Building on his groundbreaking book, The New Cold War?: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State, Mark Juergensmeyer here provides an up-to-date road map through this complex new religious terrain. Basing his discussion on interviews with militant activists and case studies of rebellious movements, Juergensmeyer puts a human face on conflicts that have become increasingly abstract. He revises our notions of religious revolution and offers positive proposals for responding to religious activism in ways that will diminish the violence and lead to an accommodation between radical religion and the secular world.

Introduction: The rise of religious rebellion -- The religious challenge to the secular state -- The loss of faith in secular nationalism -- The competition between two ideologies -- The mutual rejection of religion and secularism -- The front line of religious rebellions : the Middle East -- Egypt's origins of Muslim rebellion -- Iran's paradigmatic revolution -- Israel's militant Zionism -- Hamas : the Islamic intifada -- Insurgents in Iraq -- Other movements in the Middle East and Africa -- Political targets of rebellion : South, Central, and Southeast Asia -- Resurgent Islam in South and Central Asia -- Hindu nationalism -- Sikhism's suppressed war -- Buddhist revolts in Asia -- Religious activists in Southeast Asia -- Post-Cold War rebels : Europe, East Asia, and the United States -- The religious rejections of socialist states -- Christian and secular xenophobia in Europe -- A peaceful resolution in Northern Ireland -- Imagined armaggedon in Japan -- The militant Christian right in the United States -- Transnational networks : global Jihad -- The rise of Jihadi ideology -- Emerging networks in the Afghan-Soviet war -- Global Jihad after September 11, 2001 -- The enduring problems of violence, democracy, and human rights -- Why religious confrontations are violent -- Empowering marginal peoples -- Does religion challenge democracy? -- Minority and individual human rights -- Conclusion: Religious rebellion and global war -- What does religion have to do with it? -- The future of religious rebellions.