ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some strands in the formations of Islamic extremism with reference to the post-9/11 genre of the terrorism novel.1 Its contention is that it is over-simplifying and misleading to assume that Islamic extremism arises from a mere opposition to capitalist modernity, as is so often asserted by ideologists and politicians from both sides of the divide in their respective media. Its opening proposition is rather that it could be analytically fruitful to consider that the difference between Islam, on the one hand, and Islamism, on the other hand, could be that the latter entails a commodification of Islam. Or aspects of Islamism could be understood to constitute a capitalist version of Islam.
