ISLAMIC RADICALISM, JIHAD AND GEOGRAPHY OF UNCERTAINTY

Abstract

The recent news from the Middle East and about the facts occurred in France during the last January pose some questions to geography: what kind of geographical and political project is proposing the Islamic State (IS)?; is that a real State, which is changing the political geographies of the Middle East?; are the borders being redefined by its action?; finally: what kind of military engagement could be taken by Europe? This contribute tries to underline these questions, proposing a lecture of the changes occurring between Syria and Iraq, but maybe also in Nigeria and Yemen, of a geography of uncertainty. With this image the article tries to give an idea of the struggle between two different conceptions of the political spaces, that is producing a significant uncertainty about the borders and the territorial definition of political powers. The internal fragmentation of Iraq and Syria, strongly evident, seems to derive from the IS’ attempt to impose a different political model from the Western one: this conflict – between a universalist and religious model and a Western one – seems to contribute to produce a geography of uncertainty.