11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quite simply the best on Islam, January 11, 2002
By A Customer
I have traveled extensively through Turkey, Egypt and Israel and have read much on the Islamic world and the Middle East and Central Asia--from left-leaning writers like Said and Aburish to more Western-oriented analysts like Fouad Ajami and Judith Miller. No one has done a better job than Viorst of explaining Islam to Western readers. He catches the nuances of Islam's complexity and diversity, and looks unflinchingly at the qualities in Islam that have kept so much of the Arab and Islamic world mired in poverty and backwardness. But he is ultimately more hopeful than Adjami and Aburish and focuses with a wide enough lens to see the threads in Islamic thought that could lead its adherents out of their current morass. It is popular in many quarters to blame the problems of the Middle East on colonialism and American and Western hegemony. This is clearly an oversimplification and counter-productive for those trying honestly to figure out a solution. Viorst's analysis gets to the root of the internal problems that have made the Arab world's response to colonialism so very different and so much more self-destructive than Asia's. This is a "must read".
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sobering account of the role of Islam in the Arab world, April 23, 2003
In this book Viorst examines the role of Islam in shaping the political puzzle of the Arab world. This book is not about religion, nor is it a book about the Middle East. It is about the "political" Islam as an ideology and a force that shapes developments in the Middle East. Islam is only one of the many pieces of the Middle East puzzle (repressive regimes, regional ambitions, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and of course oil, are the others) but it's one that envelopes all else. And while Islam is not the only religion in history to force a political agenda, its influence in the Arab world today is powerful, steering islamic societies away -if not against- the western world. The question Viorst sets out to answer is this: is Islam responsible for the economic and social stagnation of the Arab world? In search for the answer he examines the historical roots of Islam, the development of Shari'a, and recent and past developments in a number of islamic countries.
Viorst describes the current ideological state of Islam as a battle between orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and modernism. Orthodoxy represents the religious status quo; it is rooted in the tradition of Islamic law but coexists comfortably with secular authority. Fundamentalism represents a rebellious and militant sect that feels betrayed by orthodoxy and seeks the submission of all things secular under religious law. Modernism represents the hope for an Islamic reformation that will lead to enlightenment and renaissance. It becomes apparent, however, that modernism currently lacks the strength to be relevant in the ideological debate. The true battle is between orthodoxy and fundamentalism and the distinction between the two is one of degree more than one of ideology.
As we follow Viorst on a tour of islamic countries (Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Jordan and Iran) we soon realize that religious influence cannot be easily divorced from the political situation in which it is born, in particular the lack of free political expression that is the common denominator throughout the Middle East. In such a repressed climate, the loose hierarchy of Islam turns the local mosque into a political nucleus, its imam into a cell leader, the Friday prayer into a rally -the only form of self organization that is tolerated. Why has this failed to produce a liberal theology and a force for social justice? It is, Viorst explains, because Islam's orthodoxy is introverted, transfixed by a strict code whose moral, social and intellectual norms are thirteen centuries old. By western standards, the golden age of Islam was the mid-8th century, when an Arab empire stretched from Persia to Spain and Baghdad was the cultural center of the world, eagerly absorbing the Greeks and prolific in producing mathematics, medicine and astronomy. But for Islamic orthodoxy this is a period of worldly living, moral decay and heretic experimentation with western values. The true golden age, we learn, is the rashidun, a 30-year period in the mid 600's, during the infancy of the new religion in the deserts of the Arabic peninsula.
The book was written before 9/11 and some passing references to the now extinct Taliban will sound dated. But in the aftermath of the war in Iraq, the subject remains both relevant and timely, as we witness the re-emergence of islamic politics following the collapse of a brutal but secular regime.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Islam without Blinders, November 28, 2001
This is an extremely thoughtful book by a Jewish writer who has obviously taken great pains to get to know the various strains of Islam and to approach his subject without the blinders of nationality or religion. He does an excellent job of sorting out the historical and cultural movements across the Islamic world. Although it was written before the events of September 11, 2001, it is prescient in its enumeration of the movements and events which gave rise to those tragedies. For westerners used to secular governments, freedom of religion and the strict separation of church and state, it provides a chilling reflection on a world where religion and religious thinking play a much more central role in the life of nations.
It does get disjointed in places and requires great concentration on the part of the reader. However, that does not detract from its importance for any student of the modern Islamic world.
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