ABSTRACT
The questions raised by ‘critical terrorism studies’ are nowhere more poignant and pertinent than in the context of Middle East area studies. The emotive debate around the ‘T’ word is at its most shrill in the region, and its usage is at its most flippant and polemical. The foreign and security policies of Israel and Iran, the activities of Hamas and Hezbollah, the ‘war on terror’ waged by the United States following the attacks of 9/11, and the activities and statements of al-Qaeda and its various franchises in the Maghreb, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula; all of the above are hotly contested, with each side in the various intermeshed disputes claiming moral righteousness and accusing the other of being a ‘terrorist’.
