Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Caryle Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

"Islam's revival is reshaping Egypt and other Arab countries in ways beyond violent politics. The yearning for personal solace, a just political system, indigenous lifestyles, and relevant theology all await satisfaction....Just as the Nile runs through Egypt for almost eight hundred miles, giving it life, so also the Straight Way, the way of Allah, runs through it, beckoning its people. The search by Egypt's Muslims for a modern understanding of the Straight Way is the essence of today's passion for Islam." -- from Chapter 1, "First Verses"

Written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, this authoritative and enthralling primer on the modern face of Islam provides one of the most comprehensive accountings for the roots of religious terrorism and Middle Eastern strife.

Over decades, a myriad of social, political, and religious factors has made today's Middle East a combustible region and has contributed to Islam's new power and turmoil. Passion for Islam uses one particular country, Egypt, as a lens through which to show how these forces play out across the area, allowing terrorism to gain a foothold.

Through the personal experiences and observations of individual Egyptians encountered during her five years as the Washington Post's Cairo bureau chief, veteran journalist Caryle Murphy explores how Islam's contemporary revival is unfolding on four different levels: "Pious Islam" highlights the groundswell of grassroots piety that has created more Islamic societies; "Political Islam" examines how Islamists, using both violent and peaceful means, are reshaping the region's authoritarian secular political order and redefining Islam's role in the public arena; "Cultural Islam" looks at Egyptian efforts to resist a ubiquitous Western culture by asserting an Islamic identity; "Thinking Islam" reveals how intellectuals are reexamining their theological heritage with the aim of modernizing Islam.

Representing years of exhaustive research, Passion for Islam also looks at how the tortured Israeli-Palestinian conflict has contributed to the region's religious ferment and political tumult. By revealing the day-to-day ramifications of all these issues through the eyes of Egyptian intellectuals, holy men, revolutionaries, and ordinary citizens, Passion for Islam brings an unparalleled vitality and depth to Western perceptions of Middle Eastern conflict.

--This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Murphy, a Pulitzer-winning journalist and former Cairo bureau chief for the Washington Post, puts Egypt at the center of the growth of Islamic extremism, because it "provides the ballast in Arab politics and diplomacy." Offering a vivid portrait of Egypt today, she attributes the spread of violent Islam to the interaction of three factors: a general reawakening of Islam, the reign of authoritarian governments in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Lee H. Hamiltondirector, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former chairman, House Committee on International RelationsDrawing on her vast experience living and reporting in Egypt, Caryle Murphy provides a sweeping account of Islam's powerful and complicated role in the Middle East. Passion for Islam illuminates the forces that have led to religious terrorism, and in doing so offers a vision for how these forces could be harnessed for peace and progress.

Judy WoodruffCNNCaryle Murphy takes us by the hand and introduces us to the people who are helping determine the future course of Islam. With her own passion for reporting and storytelling, she pulls us inside a world strange and forbidding to many Americans, but nevertheless vital for us to understand. She shows brilliantly how we have as much reason to hope for enlightenment and peace from the many corners of Islam as we do to fear more September 11ths.

Leslie H. Gelbpresident, Council on Foreign RelationsIn fine journalistic brushstrokes, Caryle Murphy lets you see how the Islamists would like to see themselves -- in all their subtle varieties and degrees of piety and lethality. While I assign more to the Islamists than the author for creating their own ills and ours, Murphy brings us much closer to Muslim minds, otherwise often caricatured in the West.

Raghida Derghamcolumnist for Al-HayatRarely does a book on religion and politics combine such journalistic excellence, impeccable research, and compelling stories. Each paragraph is a frame of history told meticulously with courage, fairness, and innovation.

Richard W. Murphysenior fellow, Middle East Council on Foreign RelationsThis is a timely, solid, and highly readable account by Caryle Murphy of conflicts within Islamic intellectual and religious circles as their leaders seek to relate their faith to today's changing political and economic conditions. Their attempts to create a modern Islamic society have led to tensions with the Egyptian government. In relating Egyptian developments to those in the broader Arab world, she persuasively demolishes the conventional wisdom that Egypt is unique and that Islam is monolithic. This book provides altogether a valuable set of insights for readers interested in getting beyond the stereotypical descriptions of Islamic thought advanced by both friends and critics of Islam in recent years. --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• ISBN-10: 0743235789
• ASIN: B00009NDB7
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,041,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great focused look by an on-the-scene observer, September 9, 2003

By 

Whitt Patrick Pond "Whitt" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience (Hardcover)

Passion For Islam is a great book for anyone interested in learning something about the rise of various Islamic movements in Egypt over the years. One of the books strengths is its focus on the specific experience of Egypt, where the author lived and worked as a journalist for several years during the 1990's. Murphy doesn't attempt to assess or explain what's happening in the Islamic world in general, or to draw broad conclusions on matters beyond the specific scope of the book, i.e. the Egyptian experience.

Murphy works in historical details in a very clear fashion, mixing them with current-day journalism and interviews with people from all levels of the Egyptian social and political scenes. You get to hear from people inside or aligned with various movements, people in the Egyptian government, and most importantly, the ordinary people in the middle whose lives are affected by these forces. She shows in great detail the complexity and diversity of thought and feelings at work, and how what's happening cannot be understood in simple black-or-white interpretations.

I found that my own understanding of the situation was greatly enhanced by reading this book. Murphy's book does not provide solutions as much as a look at what is happening and a warning. These rising movements are not monolithic in their beliefs or in their goals, and should not be treated as such. And they do not occur in a vacuum. Unless the climate in which they have sprung up -- a poor country under a corrupt, inept faux-democratic government that suppresses all discussion and dissent -- is changed, they will only continue to grow as the only alternative available.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where do Islamic Insurgencies come from?, December 9, 2004

By 

Devin Fromm (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience (Hardcover)

I just caught up to an excellent book by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Caryle Murphy, who spent three years in Cairo as Egypt's bureau chief for the Washington Post. During that time, Murphy covered the first Iraqi war and spent countless hours meeting and interviewing Egyptian citizens, as well as the powerhouses who help shape Middle Eastern policy. We Americans on the home front, traditionally ignorant about other cultures, have much to learn from this informative, easy-to-read book.

In Passion for Islam Murphy produces a consolidated picture of a process that is taking place across the Arab world, and affecting the planet as a whole. Starting with the end of the socialist promise of the Nasser era all the way through the violence that rocked Egypt in the nineties, Murphy carefully follows the development of Islamist insurgency through its various forms. Breaking down each step in the movement's growth to its simplest parts, she is able to differentiate the facets of Islam in Egypt that played into the development of radical Islamist behavior.

Murphy identifies three main parts of the radical Islamist movement, "Pious Islam," "Political Islam," and Cultural Islam." Her thorough discussion of each succeeds in illuminating the various and complex aspects of the web of Egyptian life, through which religion is a common thread. Whether it is the grounding force of a family living in poverty, or a tool by which the unscrupulous seize power, Murphy examines Islam's role in the lives of all Egyptians, and the trends both personal and national that have begun under its shadow of influence.

In this new world after 9/11 many books have appeared that address this issue in one way or another, and do so with various success. Passion for Islam, however, stands apart from this crowd if for no other reason than its sheer readability. Where many illuminating accounts of the Taliban and radical militancy burden the shelves unread with their ominous association to things like textbooks, Passion for Islam jumps out as being equal parts sociology and travelogue. Murphy carefully blends erudite reporting and commentary with descriptive scenery and personal account, relaxing the tone of the book to comfortable page turning; and throughout the commentary, she demonstrates that her understanding of the situation comes from having actually been there, as much as having studied it. With an easy tone and thoughtful manner Murphy gives an exciting and critical account of the years she spent in Egypt, and at the same time crafts a clear and useful blueprint of a process of extreme historical and political importance.

For the casual reader Passion for Islam provides an interesting look into a far away world that, though weighing on our daily lives, has remained one of murky fog and speculation. For those who know already something about the world of Islam and radical politics the book develops a new and lucid framework for understanding the situation and works extensively, in both a sociological and historical sense, to sort out and clarify the facts of one nation's experience with Islam and the world that surrounds it. It's a good blend of Discovery channel adventure and high-level insight, and goes a long way towards filling in those gaps in our collective understanding of the world around us.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Cure for Secret Ignorance, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience (Hardcover)

I have long been secrety embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about Egypt beyond the usual touristy stuff -- even though I spent some weeks there once seeing the sights and even though, more recently, I've recognized in sidelong ways that Egypt's modern history and in particular its struggle to cope with repeated waves of Islamicist extremism within its borders offers a lesson very relevant for those of us now trying to understand the Post-9/11 world. Murphy cured me of my ignorance with her compelling descriptions and analyses of the forces -- political, religious, cultural -- that have shaped that land.She does so in part with smart use of colorful characters she got to know during her time covering the region as a Washington Post reporter, and from scads of research... Cleanly organized, thorough, insightful. A very helpful and yet enjoyable read.