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Title: Jihad : The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel, Anthony F. Roberts ISBN: 0-674-01090-6 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: 31 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fabulous book
Comment: Having spend several years living and traveling in the Gulf during the 1970's I felt this book was extremely informative and thorough in its review and discussion of political islam. For anyone who really, really wants to know what is going on in that part of the world - this is the book to get.
Rating: 4
Summary: International Guide to Islamism
Comment: Kepel is an ideal guide to Islamism as an international movment. Though somehwat controversial, Kepel has produced quality scholarship with an eye for detail for a long time and is well-known and widely recognized scholar in the field. Islamism has become over time a politically moribund ideology driven more by desperation and disillusionment than by anything resembling political success or ascendency. He covers all the major topics and personalities--not nearly enough for indepth study but that's not the purpose of his book--and has a talent for connecting the dots of the international scene, thereby demonstrating the geopolitical nature of the movement despite its diversty and diffuse organization. While some may be taken aback by his assertion of the 'failture' of Islamism in light of the extreme actions committed, he nonetheless makes a good case for argument not equivocating politcal failure with political impotence. Likely the best introduction to the topic available.
Rating: 5
Summary: Good intro to Islamist movement
Comment: Kepel's 'Jihad' is an excellent introduction to modern Islamism. This is a great book if you want to know more about various Islamist movements such as: bin Laden's al-Qaeda, the civil war in Algeria, the Shi'ite revolution in Iran, the Taliban in Afganistan, and the various Islamist movements from Egypt to Malaysia.
Kepel comes to an interesting and controversial conclusion. At a time when the US administration is making vast increases to the budget to fight the war on terror (against Muslim terrorists), Kepel writes that Islamism has seen its peak as a political movement and has been on the decline since the mid 1990's. He wrote in his conclusion:
"In spite of what many hasty commentators contended in its (September 11th) immediate aftermath, the attack on the United States was a desperate symbol of isolation, fragmentation, and decline of the Islamist movement, not a sign of its strength and irrepressible might."
My reaction to this conclusion (I read the conclusion before reading the entire book) was similar to what Walter Laqueur wrote in his article 'A Failure of Intelligence', published in The Atlantic Monthly - March 2002:
"However, the same conditions that gave birth to Islamism thirty years ago persist: economic stagnation or even negative growth, the unemployment of the young. So do resentment and free-floating rage. If Islamism is bankrupt, where is the ideology to replace it?"
These are good observations, but they miss the point of Kepel's book. Kepel does not cover what he thinks will replace Islamism. Laqueur's arguments make me wonder if he even read the entire book. (Laqueur also finishes with some ridiculous statements about a lack of Middle Eastern self-criticism, which makes it sound like Laqueur has digested the ideas of the famous orientalist Bernard Lewis more than anything Kepel wrote.) Kepel is not making a sweeping statement about Islam and the West - that the tension is over and everyone will live happily ever after. Kepel realizes there will be violence in the name of Jihad. For example, his conclusion also stated:
"This does not mean that we shall not see other outbursts of terrorism that claim the mantle of jihad. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular will be ripe for more violence."
Kepel's book is more informed and specific than Laqueur acknowledges. It is about specific movements within the Islamic world, started by theorists such as Mawdudi from Pakistan or Qutb from Egypt. These movements seemed to be ready to take over the Middle East as recent as five years ago. Islamist movements succeeded in Iran and Afganistan, and in various other places in the Middle East. But since then the theories behind Islamism have not been as accepted. This is due to complex reasons, such as the increased power of the middle class in the various countries, which Kepel covers in detail.
If there is a fault in Kepel's 'Jihad', it is that the text takes a while to get used to, since it was originally written in French. I found myself reading some paragraphs two or three times over - especially in the first half. I'm not sure if I got used to the text in the second half, or the writing improved. Also, he could have spent some pages on a definition of Islamism - what theorists such as Mawdudi and Qutb wanted. You would have to get that research from another book, such as Qutb's 'Milestones'.
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Title: Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam by John L. Esposito ISBN: 0195154355 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: What Went Wrong? : The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis ISBN: 0060516054 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Dynamics of Coercion : American Foreign Policy and the Limits of Military Might (Rand Studies in Policy Analysis) by Daniel Byman, Matthew Waxman, Charles Wolf ISBN: 0521007801 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 04 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria ISBN: 0393047644 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order by Robert Kagan ISBN: 1400040930 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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