the state of Israel. Further, despite vastly larger Arab armies, the more tech-
nologically advanced IDF was the victor in all its military conflicts. But what
is more, Israel has become a leader in global business, its GDP/person is
about the same as England; its wealth is greater than all its neighbors com-
bined. It is a world leader in technology providing the world with the cell
phone, MMX/Pentium chips, IM and voice mail, etc. Much the same can be
said about its medicine and agriculture. 4) Finally, the impact of globalization
has been such that the insularity of people from the larger world has waned
and the import of foreign goods, often undercutting local artisan production,
symbolizes the technological stagnation while much of the products of the
Western culture industry portray vast wealth.
The attempts to secure dignified work and in turn, life styles through edu-
cation has become especially difficult in many Islamic countries where there
are few demands for the technologically skilled. While many young people
do pursue higher education, for those trained in Arabic or Quranic studies,
there are many more college graduates than there are jobs for them. The uni-
versities that were once the breeding grounds for socialist revolution are now
spaces where Islamisms are becoming widely studied and embraced. Moreover,
there are a number of Muslim students who go to European universities and
even move to Europe. But Europe, facing high unemployment, regards such
Muslims with anger and contempt. They are denied jobs, relegated to infe-
rior housing, and treated with disdain. Without dignity, hope or honor, they
turn to fundamentalist mosques for solace and repair. And some embrace
causes and action that provide “heroic masculinities.”
These various sources of ressentement and shame from internal legacies and
the domination of foreign States, past and current, have been conducive to
the embrace of violence as a compensatory tactic to secure voice, agency and
dignity. A number of factors ranging from historical myth and actual lega-
cies of ascent and demise have now resulted in a ressentement that valorizes
violence as a compensation for frustration. Fundamentalist ideology joins
with ressentement as a reaction to subjugation, as an attempt to restore a
shamed and denigrated self and community. The warrior of past glories has
been resurrected as the foot soldier of fundamentalism as seen in the extent
to which even young boys in fundamentalist communities “naturally” embrace
the warrior as the model of the faithful. In many Muslim countries small
numbers of mostly young, unattached, males, projecting their anger outwards,
seeking compensation for subjugation, embrace fundamentalism as a legiti-
mation (not cause) for militancy and embrace terrorism. And of these jihadis,
332 • Lauren Langman