Customer Reviews

Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I recently read Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action by the Pope's biographer George Weigel which will go on sale on Dec 26 of this year. George Weigel is certainly in the camp of those who think the Iraq War is just, but this book is not about the defense of this. Just war theory is hardly brought up and the discussion on Iraq and is mainly focused on just how badly the administration messed up post-war planning, that is if they had any real planning to deal with the situation in the first place.

There is good reason that George Weigel throughout the book refers to the Pope's Regensburg address that caused so much controversy, but for the wrong reasons. The Pope's address is almost a blueprint for this book and Weigel's contention that Jihadism is primarily caused by bad theology due to false idea that God is not even bound to reason. The Pope's critique was also focused on the Western world where there has been a loss of faith in reason and the ability to know what is true resulting in a deep and blinding skepticism.

Reading this book really helped me to focus and think about the problems of global Jihadism and how best to respond to it. In the West the idea of Jihad terrorism is mainly seen as a problem due to root causes such as poverty and other environmental factors. It is easy to understand this worldview since it results from a worldview that already does not take theology seriously in the first place. They can't see that other might take theology (no matter how badly distorted) seriously.

George Weigel lays out many factors in the Islamic culture that leads to Jihadism in the first part of the book called "Understanding the enemy." These factors are not going to be solved by reducing poverty in parts of the Middle East or by retreating back to our borders and having a foreign policy that just looks on at the rest of the world. I always found it rather silly to think that it was America helping out Muslims in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Somalia, etc as being a major rallying call against the United States. Israel is a bone of contention, but it is not just the U.S. that is supporting Israel. It is the view that Islam cannot fail and see history through this lens. The sections of Weigel's book are divided as lessons and the title of one lesson is "Jihadists read history and politics through their prism of their distinctive theological convictions, not through the lens of western assumptions of the progressive dynamic of history." Islamists see the stagnation of their culture and look for who to blame for it. The number of patents coming from predominantly Islamic cultures is so small that it hardly registers compared to countries like the United States, and in Asia and Europe. Part of the Islamist's critique of the Western world and its decadence is certainly true, but there response is even more evil than what they are suppose to be offended at. This produces the ironies such as the 9/11 hijackers visiting strip clubs before their attack on America for its decadence. Introspection just does not seem to be a part of much of the Islamic culture since it's Golden Age and decision to shut down philosophers who were contradicting it.

The second main part of the book deals with "Rethinking Realism" and why this is so important to the war against Jihad. The problems we faced in Iraq after major combat was over shows just how bad the problem is when we don't see the world as it is. In many ways this has always been a problem when we don't seriously label things as to what they are. President Reagan was attacked in the media and around the world when he called the U.S.S.R an "Evil Empire." Here was an actual case of speaking "truth to power" and people didn't like it because it identified a reality that just couldn't be brushed under the rug. Again a Chapter title sums this up well "Genuine realism in foreign policy takes wickedness seriously, yet avoids premature closure in its thinking about possibilities of positive change in world politics."

The third and final sections entails "Deserving Victory" which addresses cultural self-confidence, the false idea of tolerance, changing our energy policy to help defund Jihadism, and that there is no escape from U.S. leadership. Whoever become our next president is going to have to deal with these problems, yet I don't have much confidence that whoever it is much good will be done in these directions. A serious energy policy is quite unlikely in a partisan climate that has become so heated on this subject.

Weigel's Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action is a serious overview of the problem of Jihadism and what can be done about it and I would seriously recommend it to anyone who wants to read on the topic.

For people who have read Bernard Lewis, Victor Davis Hanson, and Robert Spencer, they might ask what does George Weigel have to say that hasn't already been said? The answer is "a great deal". This is a book that is helpful in identifying what parts of the conventional wisdom are wrong and why. It is logically organized into "lessons" (1) The great human questions, include the great questions of public life are ultimately theological. (These lessons are not assumed but explained and carefully argued). (10) In the war against global jihadism, deterrence strategies are unlikely to be effective, because is almost impossible to deter those who are committed to their own martyrdom. (14) Victory in the war against global jihadism requires a new domestic political coalition that is proof against the confusions caused by the Unhinged Left and the Unhinged Right. It is up to the United States to defend the West, and every American voter should be educated by this book and how it can be done.

This book should be required reading for all of the presidential candidates. In this short book, able to be completed in one sitting if you're diligent, Weigel accurately describes the roots of the present war against jihadism. During this crucial election year, this book helps to frame the issue that should be at the core of the decision-making process for all voters. Buy this book, give it away to your friends and request that your local library buys a copy. I can not overstate the importance of this little book.

George Weigel sees a problem with the War on Terror as we are currently conducting it. Too many people in the United States and Europe (especially the leaders) fail to understand the true motives and ideas that drive the jihadists and this leads us to make tactical mistakes. George Weigel has written this book in an attempt to help us understand what the War on Terror is really all about and how we can win it.

There are fifteen chapters in the book with each one dedicated to a single lesson that the West must learn if we are to successfully defeat the jihadists. These fifteen chapters are divided into three parts: Understanding the Enemy, Rethinking Realism, and Deserving Victory. Weigel's prose in clear as usual and in each chapter the reader is treated to a thoughtful blend of philosophy, political theory, and politics. There are a handful of problems with the book (e.g. his creation of the "unhinged right" seems like an artificial and weak construction thrown in just to provide political balance to his "unhinged left") but overall the book is a useful guide to understanding the struggle America must face if we are to prevail in the War on Terror.

Everyone in America who is unsure about the nature and desires of our enemies should read this book.

This book is an expansion of a lecture, so it is more like an essay. Brevity does not necessarily mean simplistic. (I'm not sure Mr. McLachlan in Calif. actually read it - everything he said should be addressed was, in fact.) I found it excellent and I wish it could be required reading in churches and schools throughout the U.S.

The Real Battleground with Jihadism

George Weigel correctly locates our civilization's real battle with Jihadism's attempting to destroy our nation and other nations. The battleground is in our contrasting theological concepts and the resulting actions and emotions. Jihadists view God as being remote and requiring total submission, versus Christians' view of God as our loving heavenly Father who sent his Son. These contrasting views are contained in the history and the documents of the two faiths, the Qur'an (Koran) for Islam considered to be dictated directly, word by word to one person in about 600 AD in Arabic and so not to be translated, whereas the Bible had many writers over many years, who are believed by ecclesiastical consensus to have been directly inspired by God, but who actually used the words and language of the writers' own particular historic period to document that inspiration for all.

The many confrontations with Jihadism are best understood in the context of this deep, long-term theological battle noted above. Even secular leaders and individual atheists should accept and utilize the reality of this real theological battle in their understanding and actions to be effective. Defense against the Jihadists avowed intention of eliminating non-Moslems and their culture can not be achieved by way of our military power and economic resources, as continually demonstrated by recent events. The reason for this impasse is because the battle between Jihadists and the rest of the world is asymmetric, and as per Weigel observation really theological.

Minimizing the Jihadists threat to our lives and culture will not be achieved by accommodating to their complaints against western culture, as is frequently done now, since that accommodation is regarded by them as just us acknowledging our failing and weakness with regard to Islam. We must stand firm in the applications of the rule of law, freedom in individual conscience, and social structures that are built on our Judeo-Christian history and scriptures which preceded Islam many centuries. Weigel documents how Islam's interpretation of this prior common history/heritage is very distorted by them, even wrong.

Weigel says that majority Moslem's within their own culture must work-around and then deny the Jihadists' cults for destruction for non-Moslems to truly join our global, pluralistic, contemporary world. Islam's own history of past success can serve as a basis for this correction. We of the Judeo-Christian heritage and persons of other religions must facilitate this possible transition by our frank and frequent public words both about history and contemporary concerns, plus our continued examples of social, political and material success. We must also show patience during the process of the Moslem main-stream's denying the Jihadists' their destructive positions toward themselves and the world.

There is beginning to be a flood of books about global jihad and the threat it poses to the West. There is almost nothing about what to do about it, how to fight it and win to save the culture the West has created. This superb book by George Weigel suggests 15 steps that will help in this global struggle to keep from being subverted and inundated by a totally alien totalitarian ideology completely at odds with concepts such as the dignity and worth of each individual, the equality of women, freedom of speech, self-determination, democracy, free will, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.

I am a long time admirer of George Weigel, and have been following many of his insightful articles in "First Things" and "Commentary," and hence I was very excited to get a hold of his latest book "Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism." From his earlier works like "The Cube and the Cathedral" I have come to expect a highly critical and well argued, incisive, prose and this book does not disappoint. The arguments and the prose in this latest book have been streamlined, each one of the points that Weigel is trying to get across gets its own chapter, and the proposed action plan is likewise precisely delineated. The points that Weigel is making are broken down in 15 "lessons" which are:

1. The great human questions, including the great questions of public life, are ultimately theological.
2. To speak of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as "three Abrahamic faiths," "the three religions of the Book," or the "three monotheism" obscures rather than illuminates. These familiar tropes ought to be retired.
3. Jihadims is the enemy in the multifront war that has been declared upon us.
4. Jihadism has a complex intellectual history, the chief points of which must be grasped in order to understand the nature of the threat it poses to the West.
5. Jihadists read history and politics through the prism of their own theological convictions, not through the lens of western assumptions about the progressive dynamic of history.
6. It is not "Islamophobic" to note the historical connection between conquest and Muslim expansion, or between contemporary Jihadism and terrorism. Truth-telling is the essential prerequisite to genuine interreligious dialogue, which can only be based on the claims of reason.
7. The war against jihadism is a contest for human future that will endure for generations.
8. Genuine realism in foreign policy takes wickedness seriously, yet avoids premature closure in its thinking about the possibilities of positive change in world politics.
9. In the war against jihadism, the political objective in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world is the evolution of responsible and responsive government, which will take different forms given different historical and cultural circumstances.
10. In the war against global jihadism, deterrence strategies are unlikely to be effective, because it is almost impossible to deter those who are committed to their own martyrdom.
11. Cultural self-confidence is indispensible to victory in the long-term struggle against jihadism.
12. Islamist salami tactics must be resisted, for small concessions in the name of a false idea of tolerance inevitable lead to further concessions, and then to further erosion of liberty and society.
13. We cannot, and will not, deserve victory (much less achieve it) if we continue to finance those who attack us. Therefore, a program to defund jihadism by developing alternatives to petroleum-based transportation fuels is a crucial component of the current struggle.
14. Victory in the war against global jihadism requires a new domestic political coalition that is proof against the confusions caused by the Unhinged Left and the Unhinged Right.
15. There is no escape from U.S. leadership.

This book was particularly well constructed and arrives a time where it is becoming unthinkable to think. Weigel begins to examine the world in which we live, not from a "post 9/11" standpoint, but from a person who is challenging the world to think about what is happening and look with a greater objectivity to how we can work for a world of true freedom.

This book is yet another instance of clear and reasoned thinking from Weigel on an issue of great importance that has been greatly muddled in the public mind by many kinds of foolishness from many different quarters. His treatment is neither Right nor Left. He does not hesitate to criticize the many mistakes, both theoretical and practical, of the Bush Administration. But he likewise points out where they got it right. He was writing in 2007 when no one knew who would follow Bush as POTUS. His policy suggestions are measured and practicable. After an Introduction titled "Deadly Serious Business,: he breaks down his analysis into three parts and further into fifteen short chapters or "lessons." I will let them speak for themselves. They are as follows:

Part One: Understanding the Enemy
Lesson 1: The great human questions, including the great questions of public life, are ultimately theological.
Lesson 2: To speak of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the "three Abrahamic faiths," the "three religions of the Book," or the "three monotheisms" obscures rather than illuminates. These familiar tropes ought to be retired.
Lesson 3: Jihadism is the enemy in the multifront war that has been declared upon us.
Lesson 4: Jihadism has a complex intellectual history, the chief points of which must be grasped in order to understand the nature of the threat it poses to the West.
Lesson 5: Jihadists read history and politics through the prism of their distinctive theological convictions, not through the lens of western assumptions about the progressive dynamic of history.
Lesson 6: It is not "Islamophobic" to note the historical connection between conquest and Muslim expansion, or between contemporary jihadism and terrorism. Truth-telling is the essential prerequisite to genuine interreligious dialogue, which can only be based on the claims of reason.
Lesson 7: The war against jihadism is a contest for the human future that will endure for generations.

Part Two: Rethinking Realism
Lesson 8: Genuine realism in foreign policy takes wickedness seriously, yet avoids premature closure in its thinking about the possibilities of positive change in world politics.
Lesson 9: In the war against jihadism, the political objective in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world is the evolution of responsible and responsive government, which will take different forms given different historical and cultural circumstances.
Lesson 10: In the war against global jihadism, deterrence strategies are unlikely to be effective, because it is almost impossible to deter those who are committed to their own martyrdom.

Part Three: Deserving Victory
Lesson 11: Cultural self-confidence is indispensable to victory in the long-term struggle against jihadism.
Lesson 12: Islamist salami tactics must be resisted, for small concessions in the name of a false idea of tolerance inevitably lead to further concessions, and then to further erosions of liberty and security.
Lesson 13: We cannot, and will not, deserve victory (much less achieve it) if we continue to finance those who attack us. Therefore, a program to defund jihadism by developing alternatives to petroleum-based transportation fuels is a crucial component of the current struggle.
Lesson 14: Victory in the war against global jihadism requires a new domestic political coalition that is proof against the confusions caused by the Unhinged Left and the Unhinged Right.
Lesson 15: There is no escape from U.S. leadership.

The whole book can be read in a few hours and I highly suggest that you do so, even if you suspect that there will be much in it that you disagree with. My biggest complaint, as so often, is the endnotes. Many of them are substantive and very worth reading. In some cases it seems as though important material was relegated to the notes primarily to speed up the pace of the book and not burden it with too many long quotes. Fine. But why not make them footnotes so that people who mean to read the whole text are not constantly shuttling back and forth?