edited by James R. Lewis, University of Tromso, Norway, Carole M. Cusack, University of Sidney, Australia
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
ix, 299 pages ;
Dimensions
24 cm
SERIES
Series Title
Ashgate new religions
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
CONTENTS NOTE
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Historical suicide cults -- The Sicarii suicide on Masada and the foundation of a national myth / Nachman Ben-Yehuda -- Religious mass suicide before Jonestown: the Russian old believers / Thomas Robbins -- Contemporary suicide cults -- Purification, illumination, and death: the murder-suicides of the Order of the Solar Temple / Henrik Bogdan -- Rhetoric, revolution, and resistance in Jonestown, Guyana / Rebecca Moore -- Individual suicide and the end of the world: destruction and the transformation in UFO and alien-based religions / Carole M. Cusack -- Apocalypse in Uganda: the movement for the restoration of the Ten Commandments of God one decade on / John Walliss -- Social-political suicides -- A sociological analysis of Muslim terrorism / Jan A. Ali -- So costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom: human bombs, suicide attacks, and patriotic heroes / Mattias Gardell -- Burning Buddhists: self-immolation as political protest / Katarina Plank -- Dying to tell: media orchestration of politically motivated suicides / Lorenz Graitl -- Faux suicide cults -- Death by whose hand? Falun Gong and suicide / Helen Farley -- The Mount Carmel holocaust: suicide or execution? / James R. Lewis -- Screen suicide cults -- Rescripting the past: suicide cults on television / Lynn S. Neal -- Why Muslims kill themselves on film: from Hollywood's racism to Girard's victimage mechanism / Christopher Hartney
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The label 'Suicide Cults' has been applied to a wide variety of different alternative religions, from Jonestown to the Solar Temple to Heaven's Gate. Additionally, observers have asked if such group suicides are in any way comparable to Islamist suicide terrorism, or to historical incidents of mass suicide, such as the mass suicide of the ancient community of Masada. Organizationally and ideologically diverse, it turns out that the primary shared trait of these various groups is a common stereotype of religion as an irrational force that pushes fanatics to undertake acts of suicidal violence. Offering a valuable perspective on New Religious Movements and on religion and violence, Sacred Suicide brings together contributions from a diverse range of international scholars of sociology, religious studies and criminology