"The Failure of Political Islam" by Olivier Roy (1998, Harvard University Press).
Video Title: Olivier Roy, Professor at the European University Institute in Florence. Source: France 24 English. Date Published: November 18, 2014. Description:
Olivier Roy is a French expert on political Islam. But he is also an original academic, who criss-crossed Afghanistan in the 1970s and later during its war against the Soviet Union, and who has also visited Iran and Central Asia numerous times. This unusual journey is recounted in a book-length interview, published in French and entitled "Looking for the Lost Orient."
"Political Islam as a political ideology is dead. It's dead simply because it doesn't work. The concept of an Islamic state never works. It doesn't work in Iran. We have the most secular society now in Iran if we compare with thirty years ago. It doesn't work in Saudi Arabia. . . and it didn't work in Tunisia and Egypt one year ago when the Islamists were in charge. They have been elected, they won the election, so it's not the failure of Islamist parties, but it's the failure of the political project." - Olivier Roy.
