title: Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad (Indiana Series in Arab and Islamic Studies)
author: Ziad Abu-Amr
description: Though it does not include the response to the recent peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, this book is a worthwhile expert's guide to the history, strategy and thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood, noted for its political wing, Hamas, and the smaller, more purist Islamic Jihad. The two growing Islamic fundamentalist groups have been challenging the authority of the secular, nationalist PLO. Abu-Amr, a political science professor at Birzeit University on the West Bank, has a dry academic style, but he draws valuably from a range of Arabic sources and personal interviews. He charts the groups' roles in the intifada , which began in 1987, including the Muslim Brotherhood's evolution from a nonviolent group to armed resistance through Hamas. This move brought the Brotherhood closer to the previously hostile Islamic Jihad. The author concludes that the Palestinian secular tradition and the desire for pluralism may hamper the Islamic movement; but he also predicts that if the PLO fails to achieve self-determination, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have links to a growing world Islamic movement, will continue to gain influence.
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  Egypt Awakening in the Early Twentieth Century
  
  
  **Middle East Today**
  
  
  Series editors:
  
  
  Mohammed Ayoob
  
  
  Fawaz A. Gerges
  
  
  University Distinguished Professor of
  
  
  Professor and Chair of Middle Eastern
  
  
  International Relations
  
  
  Politics and International Relations
  
  
  Michigan State University
  
  
  Director of the Middle East Centre
  
  
  London School of Economics
  
  
  The Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent Gulf Wars, along with the
  overthrow of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, have dramatically altered the
  geopolitical landscape of the contemporary Middle East. This series puts
  forward a critical body of first-rate scholarship that reflects the current
  political and social realities of the region, focusing on original research
  about the Israeli-Palestine conflict; social movements, institutions, and the
  role played by nongovernmental organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the
  Taliban, and the Muslim Brotherhood; Iran and Turkey as emergin