Q & A on The War for Islam

The more I read the more questions I had. Over the next few years I began to realize that the media were presenting half truths and distortions designed to support U.S. positions. The media seemed to be acting as public relations firms for the U.S. I began feeling the urge to present an alternative view, and started contributing to a Washington area newspaper-Eastern Times. Eventually, the desire to reach a broader audience led to the founding in 1995 of The Wisdom Fund, and the setting-up of it's web site at www.twf.org. The War on Islam is based upon the articles I wrote for The Wisdom Fund. As such, while some repetition is inevitable, the individual chapters-which serve as an antidote to the less than balanced coverage of events by U.S. news media-may be read in any order, and are written to appeal to a wider audience than the typical book on these subjects. Hopefully, these glimpses of the war on Islam (and for the non-Muslim, a glimpse of Islam) will awaken concerned Americans and Muslims to the tactics used to divide us. Such understanding may move us closer to our goal of justice and peace for all. For the reader who seldom ventures beyond major news media, this book promises a journey through new, and often disturbing, terrain. This 5th edition of The War on Islam-in which I challenge the official position on 9/11-may cause some readers to dismiss it as "conspiracy theory." I am prepared to debate the issue.

Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 2007

As is often the case with edited volumes such as this one, the thirteen contributions (including Introduction and Conclusion) vary considerably in quality and in approach to the overall topic. I shall therefore deal with them one by one. The Introduction by two of the editors gives a brief survey of the historical background to 9/11 and its immediate aftermath, and canvasses some of the ideas in the articles to follow. It points out, perhaps provocatively, that 'Al Qa'eda is not as marginal in Muslim society as is made out by the West and many analysts' (p. 9). The next four contributions are grouped as 'Part I: Theoretical Issues'. Theodore Gabriel argues that the relation between Islam and the West has more often been 'one of mutual interdependence' (p. 18) than enmity but that Muslims have genuine grievances against injustices done by the West, especially in the case of the Palestinians, and these lead to antagonism. John J. Shepherd, by contrast, argues unremittingly that the content of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures conduce almost logically to extremism, whether that of Israeli West Bank settlers, Christian anti-Semites, Muslim terrorists, or others surveyed. The need is for greater self-criticism and a recognition that moral criteria stand above religious dogma: not an easy demand. Kenneth Cragg argues that the Meccan (rather than the Medinan) situation of Muhammad should guide current Muslim attitudes toward global politics. The argument is suggestive, creative but somewhat confusing, in a way typical of other writings of his that I have read. Ron Greaves presents the basic dilemma of modern Islam, the loss of its previous pre-eminence and the struggle to regain it, and four ideological positions into which most Muslims fall. He warns against identifying as 'moderate' those who most share the Western worldview, which claims to be pluralist but has its own absolutism, and he calls for a more genuine pluralism. The rest of the contributions are in 'Part II: Case Studies'. Marcia Hermanson deals with responses to 9/11, with the search for a 'good' or

Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions

Digest of Middle East Studies, 2018

T his book is original and timely. I think it has almost everything a modern book on Middle East politics after the Arab Spring should have-a reliance on both fieldwork and narrative techniques, an openness to new theories of public space, sociology, anthropology, and political science that promise better outcomes, illustrations with real data sets that show the cultural and political perspectives and specificities of this region of the world. The book raises useful questions with step-by-step answers that help the reader work out how to understand the challenges facing Arab politics and society in the post-Arab Spring era. It is a sophisticated book that truly provides an elegant and useful analysis of the interaction of religion and politics in the region. This is a book for readers and researchers who are already familiar with theories of politics and public sphere, but who may not know the complexities of Arab and Muslim societies. The title of the book and the introduction seem to indicate that this book is suitable for those who are interested in Islam and the Islamic movement in the Middle East and who want to know how political discourse, activism, and religion impact on policymaking and democratizing the region. What is interesting about this book is that it focuses on several types of public sphere and analyzes how they interact together. It investigates political conversations in small groups in public and private circles, debates in public squares and mosques, discussions that take place in social and regular media, and debates in institutions like parliaments, especially the political discussions and clashes that take place between opposing parliamentary groups before agreeing or voting on legislation. However, I have two problems with this book. First, it gives the impression that religion and politics can go together, but we know for a fact that one of the reasons

This is a book review and article about my text Bilali Muhammad's Meditations from the Muslim Journal.

Appeared in ARC, The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, 30 (2002):191-210. Revised version in Religion, Terror and Violence: Religious Studies Perspectives, eds. Bryan Rennie and Philip L. Tite (Routledge, 2008), 144-159.

Muslim World, 2007