The Crisis In Islam

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The Crisis of Islam

Author : Bernard Lewis
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 0812967852
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis The Crisis of Islam by : Bernard Lewis

Download or read book The Crisis of Islam written by Bernard Lewis and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2004-03-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world. The Crisis of Islam ranges widely through thirteen centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today: the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States. While hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Brilliantly disentangling the crosscurrents of Middle Eastern history from the rhetoric of its manipulators, Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award–winning article for The New Yorker, The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Usama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world.

The Crisis of Islamic Civilization

Author : Ali A. Allawi
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780300139310
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (393 download)

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Book Synopsis The Crisis of Islamic Civilization by : Ali A. Allawi

Download or read book The Crisis of Islamic Civilization written by Ali A. Allawi and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam as a religion is central to the lives of over a billion people, but its outer expression as a distinctive civilization has been undergoing a monumental crisis. Buffeted by powerful adverse currents, Islamic civilization today is a shadow of its former self. The most disturbing and possibly fatal of these currents—the imperial expansion of the West into Muslim lands and the blast of modernity that accompanied it—are now compounded by a third giant wave, globalization. These forces have increasingly tested Islam and Islamic civilization for validity, adaptability, and the ability to hold on to the loyalty of Muslims, says Ali A. Allawi in his provocative new book. While the faith has proved resilient in the face of these challenges, other aspects of Islamic civilization have atrophied or died, Allawi contends, and Islamic civilization is now undergoing its last crisis. The book explores how Islamic civilization began to unravel under colonial rule, as its institutions, laws, and economies were often replaced by inadequate modern equivalents. Allawi also examines the backlash expressed through the increasing religiosity of Muslim societies and the spectacular rise of political Islam and its terrorist offshoots. Assessing the status of each of the building blocks of Islamic civilization, the author concludes that Islamic civilization cannot survive without the vital spirituality that underpinned it in the past. He identifies a key set of principles for moving forward, principles that will surprise some and anger others, yet clearly must be considered.

Crisis in the Muslim Mind

Author : AbdulHamid AbuSulayman
Publisher : International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Crisis in the Muslim Mind by : AbdulHamid AbuSulayman

Download or read book Crisis in the Muslim Mind written by AbdulHamid AbuSulayman and published by International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across the Muslim world today, if anything is self-evident across the Muslim world today it is that the Ummah is badly in need of reform. On this point it can be stated with confidence that Muslims are agreed. Poverty and injustice characterize the face of Muslim lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Pollution and corruption are the order of the day in the societies where the gulf between them and the developed countries of the world has never been wider. Politics in the Muslim world are all too often the politics of deprivation, and culture the culture of despair. “Crisis in the Muslim Mind” examines the intellectual and historical roots of the malaise that has encompassed the Ummah and threatens to efface its identity. Firs published in Arabic in 1991, this important work (in an abridged English translation) is designed to familiarize educated and concerned Muslims with the nature of the crisis confronting them, and to suggest the steps necessary to overcome it.

Journey Into Islam

Author : Akbar Ahmed
Publisher : Penguin Books India
ISBN 13 : 9780670081417
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (814 download)

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Book Synopsis Journey Into Islam by : Akbar Ahmed

Download or read book Journey Into Islam written by Akbar Ahmed and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2007 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why? Years After September 11, We Are Still Looking For Answers. Internationally Renowned Islamic Scholar Akbar Ahmed Knew That This Question Could Not Be Answered Until Islam And The West Found A Way Past The Hatred And Mistrust Intensified By The War On Terror And The Forces Of Globalization. Seeking To Establish Dialogue And Understanding Between These Cultures, Ahmed Led A Team Of Dedicated Young Americans On A Daring And Unprecedented Tour Of The Muslim World. Journey Into Islam: The Crisis Of Globalization Is The Riveting Story Of Their Search For Common Ground. From The Mosques Of Damascus To The Madrassas Of Karachi And Deoband, Ahmed And His Companions Met With Muslims From All Walks Of Life. They Listened To Students And Professors, Presidents And Prime Ministers, Sheikhs And Cab Drivers, Revealing Muslim Hopes And Frustrations As The West Has Never Heard Before. They Returned From Their Groundbreaking Journey With Both Cause For Concern And Occasion For Hope. Rejecting Stereotypes And Conventional Wisdom About Islam And Its Encounter With Globalization, This Important Book Offers A New Framework For Understanding The Muslim World. As Western Leaders Wage A War On Terrorism, Ahmed Offers Insightful Suggestions On How The United States Can Improve Relations With Islamic Nations And Peoples. Written With Equal Parts Compassion And Urgency, Journey Into Islam Makes A Powerful Case For Forming Bonds Across Religion, Race, And Tradition To Create Lasting Harmony Between Islam And The West. It Is Essential Reading In An Era Of Mistrust And Misunderstanding.

Unholy War

Author : John L. Esposito
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780195168860
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (688 download)

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Book Synopsis Unholy War by : John L. Esposito

Download or read book Unholy War written by John L. Esposito and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the intellectual underpinnings of the more radical elements of contemporary Islam.

Islam Is a Foreign Country

Author : Zareena Grewal
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479800562
Total Pages : 410 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Islam Is a Foreign Country by : Zareena Grewal

Download or read book Islam Is a Foreign Country written by Zareena Grewal and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers the question: what does it mean to be Muslim and American? In Islam Is a Foreign Country, Zareena Grewal explores some of the most pressing debates about and among American Muslims: what does it mean to be Muslim and American? Who has the authority to speak for Islam and to lead the stunningly diverse population of American Muslims? Do their ties to the larger Muslim world undermine their efforts to make Islam an American religion? Offering rich insights into these questions and more, Grewal follows the journeys of American Muslim youth who travel in global, underground Islamic networks. Devoutly religious and often politically disaffected, these young men and women are in search of a home for themselves and their tradition. Through their stories, Grewal captures the multiple directions of the global flows of people, practices, and ideas that connect U.S. mosques to the Muslim world. By examining the tension between American Muslims’ ambivalence toward the American mainstream and their desire to enter it, Grewal puts contemporary debates about Islam in the context of a long history of American racial and religious exclusions. Probing the competing obligations of American Muslims to the nation and to the umma (the global community of Muslim believers), Islam is a Foreign Country investigates the meaning of American citizenship and the place of Islam in a global age.

The Crisis in Islam

Author : Dr Abdul-Haq Al-Ani Author
Publisher : Middle East Book Review
ISBN 13 : 9780993572005
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (72 download)

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Book Synopsis The Crisis in Islam by : Dr Abdul-Haq Al-Ani Author

Download or read book The Crisis in Islam written by Dr Abdul-Haq Al-Ani Author and published by Middle East Book Review. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to understand the current violence in the Arab/Muslim world it is necessary to go back to its roots. This book sets out to show that the roots of Islamic terror dates back to the day the Prophet died on which an Islamic State was set up. Qur'anic Islam, which declares that the Prophet was only sent as 'Mercy to all Mankind', was from that day politicized, misinterpreted and used as means and justification for invasion, killing and pillage. The book establishes, relying on the Qur'an, the fact that Islam was meant for the Arabs alone and thus there was no mission to spread it by the sword. Muslims in general and clerics in particular must accept this Qur'anic fact and reread their history and accept it for its success and failures. The only out of this quagmire is to acknowledge that some of the practices of the 'Guided Predecessors' were un-Islamic and stop teaching them to young Muslims as the right path to follow. Western Imperialists need to stop attacking Muslim land as they have been doing for two centuries if they genuinely want to avoid encouraging the recruitment, by Muslim fundamentalists, of young Muslims from among their citizens who see the invasion and subjugation of Muslim land, by the West, as an attack on their existence and identity.

What Went Wrong?

Author : Bernard Lewis
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198032951
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis What Went Wrong? by : Bernard Lewis

Download or read book What Went Wrong? written by Bernard Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-01-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement--the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe, a remote land beyond its northwestern frontier, was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed, as the previously despised West won victory after victory, first in the battlefield and the marketplace, then in almost every aspect of public and even private life. In this intriguing volume, Bernard Lewis examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tried to understand why things had changed--how they had been overtaken, overshadowed, and to an increasing extent dominated by the West. Lewis provides a fascinating portrait of a culture in turmoil. He shows how the Middle East turned its attention to understanding European weaponry and military tactics, commerce and industry, government and diplomacy, education and culture. Lewis highlights the striking differences between the Western and Middle Eastern cultures from the 18th to the 20th centuries through thought-provoking comparisons of such things as Christianity and Islam, music and the arts, the position of women, secularism and the civil society, the clock and the calendar. Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis is one of the West's foremost authorities on Islamic history and culture. In this striking volume, he offers an incisive look at the historical relationship between the Middle East and Europe.

Islam and the West

Author : Bernard Lewis
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019028238X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Islam and the West by : Bernard Lewis

Download or read book Islam and the West written by Bernard Lewis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994-10-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "the doyen of Middle Eastern studies," Bernard Lewis has been for half a century one of the West's foremost scholars of Islamic history and culture, the author of over two dozen books, most notably The Arabs in History, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, The Political Language of Islam, and The Muslim Discovery of Europe. Eminent French historian Robert Mantran has written of Lewis's work: "How could one resist being attracted to the books of an author who opens for you the doors of an unknown or misunderstood universe, who leads you within to its innermost domains: religion, ways of thinking, conceptions of power, culture--an author who upsets notions too often fixed, fallacious, or partisan." In Islam and the West, Bernard Lewis brings together in one volume eleven essays that indeed open doors to the innermost domains of Islam. Lewis ranges far and wide in these essays. He includes long pieces, such as his capsule history of the interaction--in war and peace, in commerce and culture--between Europe and its Islamic neighbors, and shorter ones, such as his deft study of the Arabic word watan and what its linguistic history reveals about the introduction of the idea of patriotism from the West. Lewis offers a revealing look at Edward Gibbon's portrait of Muhammad in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (unlike previous writers, Gibbon saw the rise of Islam not as something separate and isolated, nor as a regrettable aberration from the onward march of the church, but simply as a part of human history); he offers a devastating critique of Edward Said's controversial book, Orientalism; and he gives an account of the impediments to translating from classic Arabic to other languages (the old dictionaries, for one, are packed with scribal errors, misreadings, false analogies, and etymological deductions that pay little attention to the evolution of the language). And he concludes with an astute commentary on the Islamic world today, examining revivalism, fundamentalism, the role of the Shi'a, and the larger question of religious co-existence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. A matchless guide to the background of Middle East conflicts today, Islam and the West presents the seasoned reflections of an eminent authority on one of the most intriguing and little understood regions in the world.

Islam in a Globalizing World

Author : Thomas W. Simons
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804748330
Total Pages : 125 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Islam in a Globalizing World by : Thomas W. Simons

Download or read book Islam in a Globalizing World written by Thomas W. Simons and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former U.S. ambassador and author of The End of the Cold War? takes readers on a tour of Islamic history, reconstructing the complex historical and geopolitical trends that have created modern Islam. Simultaneous. (Islam)

Islam

Author : Bernard Ellis Lewis
Publisher : Pearson Prentice Hall
ISBN 13 : 0132716062
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (327 download)

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Book Synopsis Islam by : Bernard Ellis Lewis

Download or read book Islam written by Bernard Ellis Lewis and published by Pearson Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2008-08-19 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for Bernard Lewis "For newcomers to the subject[el]Bernard Lewis is the man." TIME Magazine “The doyen of Middle Eastern studies." The New York Times “No one writes about Muslim history with greater authority, or intelligence, or literary charm.” British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper “Bernard Lewis has no living rival in his field.” Al Ahram, Cairo (the most influential Arab world newspaper) "When it comes to Islamic studies, Bernard Lewis is the father of us all. With brilliance, integrity, and extraordinary mastery of languages and sources, he has led the way for[el]investigators seeking to understand the Muslim world." National Review "Bernard Lewis combines profound depth of scholarship with encyclopedic knowledge of the Middle East and, above all, readability." Daily Telegraph (London) "Lewis speaks with authority in prose marked by lucidity, elegance, wit and force." Newsday (New York) "Lewis' style is lucid, his approach, objective." Philadelphia Inquirer "Lewis writes with unsurpassed erudition and grace." Washington Times An objective, easy-to-read introduction to Islam by Bernard Lewis, one of the West’s leading experts on Islam For many people, Islam remains a mystery. Here Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill examine Islam: what its adherents believe and how their religion has shaped them, their rich and diverse cultures, and their politics over more than 14 centuries. Considered one of the West’s leading experts on Islam, Lewis, with Churchill, has written an illuminating introduction for those who want to understand the faith and the global challenges it confronts and presents. Whatever your political, personal, or religious views, this book will help you understand Islam’s reality. Lewis and Churchill answer questions such as... • How does Islam differ from Judaism and Christianity? • What are the pillars of the Islamic faith? • What does Islam really say about peace and jihad? • How does the faith regard non-Muslims? • What are the differences between Sunni and Shi’a? • What does Islam teach about the position of women in society? • What does Islam say about free enterprise and profit? • What caused the rise of radical Islam? • What are the problems facing Muslims in the U.S. and Europe and what are the challenges posed by those minorities?

The Trouble with Islam

Author : Irshad Manji
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1429906936
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis The Trouble with Islam by : Irshad Manji

Download or read book The Trouble with Islam written by Irshad Manji and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I have to be honest with you. Islam is on very thin ice with me....Through our screaming self-pity and our conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We're in crisis and we're dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it's now. For the love of God, what are we doing about it?" In blunt, provocative, and deeply personal terms, Irshad Manji unearths the troubling cornerstones of mainstream Islam today: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-Semitism, and an uncritical acceptance of the Koran as the final, and therefore superior, manifesto of God. In this open letter to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, Manji asks arresting questions. "Who is the real colonizer of Muslims - America or Arabia? Why are we all being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis? Why are we squandering the talents of women, fully half of God's creation? What's our excuse for reading the Koran literally when it's so contradictory and ambiguous? Is that a heart attack you're having? Make it fast. Because if more of us don't speak out against the imperialists within Islam, these guys will walk away with the show." Manji offers a practical vision of how the United States and its allies can help Muslims undertake a reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities, and fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives Islam's lost tradition of independent thinking. This book will inspire struggling Muslims worldwide to revisit the foundations of their faith. It will also compel non-Muslims to start posing the important questions without fear of being deemed "racists." In more ways than one, The Trouble with Islam is a clarion call for a fatwa-free future.

Islamic Exceptionalism

Author : Shadi Hamid
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1466866721
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Islamic Exceptionalism by : Shadi Hamid

Download or read book Islamic Exceptionalism written by Shadi Hamid and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Islamic Exceptionalism, Brookings Institution scholar and acclaimed author Shadi Hamid offers a novel and provocative argument on how Islam is, in fact, "exceptional" in how it relates to politics, with profound implications for how we understand the future of the Middle East. Divides among citizens aren't just about power but are products of fundamental disagreements over the very nature and purpose of the modern nation state—and the vexing problem of religion’s role in public life. Hamid argues for a new understanding of how Islam and Islamism shape politics by examining different models of reckoning with the problem of religion and state, including the terrifying—and alarmingly successful—example of ISIS. With unprecedented access to Islamist activists and leaders across the region, Hamid offers a panoramic and ambitious interpretation of the region's descent into violence. Islamic Exceptionalism is a vital contribution to our understanding of Islam's past and present, and its outsized role in modern politics. We don't have to like it, but we have to understand it—because Islam, as a religion and as an idea, will continue to be a force that shapes not just the region, but the West as well in the decades to come.

The Closing of the Muslim Mind

Author : Robert R. Reilly
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1684516064
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (845 download)

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Book Synopsis The Closing of the Muslim Mind by : Robert R. Reilly

Download or read book The Closing of the Muslim Mind written by Robert R. Reilly and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-06-20 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam's Intellectual Suicide—and the Threat to Us All People are shocked and frightened by the behavior coming out the Islamic world—not only because it is violent, but also because it is seemingly inexplicable. While there are many answers to the question of “what went wrong” in the Muslim world, no one has decisively answered why it went wrong. Until now. In this eye-opening new book, foreign policy expert Robert R. Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture. Terrorism—from 9/11, to London, Madrid, and Mumbai, to the Christmas 2009 attempted airline bombing—is the most obvious manifestation of this crisis. But Reilly shows that the pathology extends much further. The Closing of the Muslim Mind solves such puzzles as: · why peace is so elusive in the Middle East · why the Arab world stands near the bottom of every measure of human development · why scientific inquiry is nearly dead in the Islamic world · why Spain translates more books in a single year than the entire Arab world has in the past thousand years · why some people in Saudi Arabia still refuse to believe man has been to the moon · why Muslim media frequently present natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina as God’s direct retribution Delving deeper than previous polemics and simplistic analyses, The Closing of the Muslim Mind provides the answers the West has so desperately needed in confronting the Islamist crisis.

Understanding the Koran

Author : Mateen Elass
Publisher : Zondervan
ISBN 13 : 0310298601
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis Understanding the Koran by : Mateen Elass

Download or read book Understanding the Koran written by Mateen Elass and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-08-19 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Find out how the Koran resembles the Bible—and the drastic ways in which it differs. Understanding the Koran gives you an essential grasp of Islam's holy book: where it came from, what it teaches, how Muslims view it, and how the Allah of the Koran compares with the God of the Bible. Cherished as the final, perfect revelation of God's will by 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide, the Koran has become a part of American life. What do you know about the holy book that shapes the lives and views of your neighbors and a fifth of the world's population? Written by a pastor who was born to a Muslim father and raised in Saudi Arabia, Understanding the Koran gives you a fascinating, easy-to-understand overview that will show you: Why the background behind the Koran is important to understanding it. How the Koran came into existence. A summary of the main teachings of the Koran, including what it says about Jesus and the crucifixion. Similarities and differences between Muslim and Christian views of God. What the Koran teaches about Jihad and holy war. What the Koran teaches about heaven and hell and the final destinies of the human soul. Giving you an essential grasp of Islam's holy book, Understanding the Koran points you to the one thing that can draw your Muslim friends to Jesus—his love, demonstrated to them through you. Discussion questions make it possible to use this book in group studies.

Taken Hostage

Author : David Farber
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400826209
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Taken Hostage by : David Farber

Download or read book Taken Hostage written by David Farber and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took sixty-six Americans captive. Thus began the Iran Hostage Crisis, an affair that captivated the American public for 444 days and marked America's first confrontation with the forces of radical Islam. Using hundreds of recently declassified government documents, historian David Farber takes the first in-depth look at the hostage crisis, examining its lessons for America's contemporary War on Terrorism. Unlike other histories of the subject, Farber's vivid and fast-paced narrative looks beyond the day-to-day circumstances of the crisis, using the events leading up to the ordeal as a means for understanding it. The book paints a portrait of the 1970s in the United States as an era of failed expectations in a nation plagued by uncertainty and anxiety. It reveals an American government ill prepared for the fall of the Shah of Iran and unable to reckon with the Ayatollah Khomeini and his militant Islamic followers. Farber's account is filled with fresh insights regarding the central players in the crisis: Khomeini emerges as an astute strategist, single-mindedly dedicated to creating an Islamic state. The Americans' student-captors appear as less-than-organized youths, having prepared for only a symbolic sit-in with just a three-day supply of food. ABC news chief Roone Arledge, newly installed and eager for ratings, is cited as a critical catalyst in elevating the hostages to cause célèbre status. Throughout the book there emerge eerie parallels to the current terrorism crisis. Then as now, Farber demonstrates, politicians failed to grasp the depth of anger that Islamic fundamentalists harbored toward the United States, and Americans dismissed threats from terrorist groups as the crusades of ineffectual madmen. Taken Hostage is a timely and revealing history of America's first engagement with terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, one that provides a chilling reminder that the past is only prologue.

Crisis of Islamic Civilization

Author : Ali A. Allawi
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300158858
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Crisis of Islamic Civilization by : Ali A. Allawi

Download or read book Crisis of Islamic Civilization written by Ali A. Allawi and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam as a religion is central to the lives of over a billion people, but its outer expression as a distinctive civilization has been undergoing a monumental crisis. Buffeted by powerful adverse currents, Islamic civilization today is a shadow of its former self. The most disturbing and possibly fatal of these currents--the imperial expansion of the West into Muslim lands and the blast of modernity that accompanied it--are now compounded by a third giant wave, globalization. These forces have increasingly tested Islam and Islamic civilization for validity, adaptability, and the ability to hold on to the loyalty of Muslims, says Ali A. Allawi in his provocative new book. While the faith has proved resilient in the face of these challenges, other aspects of Islamic civilization have atrophied or died, Allawi contends, and Islamic civilization is now undergoing its last crisis. The book explores how Islamic civilization began to unravel under colonial rule, as its institutions, laws, and economies were often replaced by inadequate modern equivalents. Allawi also examines the backlash expressed through the increasing religiosity of Muslim societies and the spectacular rise of political Islam and its terrorist offshoots. Assessing the status of each of the building blocks of Islamic civilization, the author concludes that Islamic civilization cannot survive without the vital spirituality that underpinned it in the past. He identifies a key set of principles for moving forward, principles that will surprise some and anger others, yet clearly must be considered.