François Burgat, politologue, est directeur de recherches au CNRS (IREMAM, Aix-en-Provence), a été directeur de l'Ifpo de mai 2008 à avril 2013. Il est notamment l’auteur de L’Islamisme au Maghreb : la voix du Sud (Karthala, 1988 ; Payot, 1995, 2008), de L’Islamisme en face (La Découverte, 1995, 2002, 2007) et de L'Islamisme à l'heure d'Al-Qaida (La Découverte, Paris, 2005, 2010).
In this work, one of the great specialists of political Islam recounts his meetings, from Algeria to Syria by way of Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, Egypt and France, with many of the members of this movement over almost 40 years. He shows that they are motivated more by secular and political motives than by religion – very far from the essentialist explanations of Islamist radicalism of today the key to which is sought in vain in the seventh century Quran.
François Burgat, political analyst and research director at the CNRS (National Centre for scientific research) (IREMAM, Aix-en-Provence), was the director of the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) from May 2008 to April 2013. He is the author of L’Islamisme en face (Facets of Islamism (1995, 2002, 2007), L’Islamisme à l’heure d’Al-Qaida (Islamism at the time of Al Qaeda) (2005, 2010) et Pas de printemps pour la Syrie (No Arab spring for Syria) (co-direction, 2013).