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In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam
 
 
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In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam (Paperback)

~ (Author) "ONE EVENING in the fall of 1993, I passed beneath the arch of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem and rediscovered the cobblestone labyrinth of the..." (more)
Key Phrases: mosque associations, Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Muslim Brotherhood (more...)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For most non-Muslims, Islam is an indistinct religion of white tunics, much kneeling, and fanatic violence. Long-time New Yorker writer Milton Viorst begins refining this image for us by traveling throughout the Arab world and taking us back into the early days of Muhammad's empire. In Egypt, he meets with scholars from Islam's most influential university to understand opinions surrounding the murder of one liberalizer of Islam and the state-dissolved marriage of another. In Syria, he speaks with King Hussein about his family's history, which reaches back to Muhammad's brother-in-law, and Hussein's efforts to bring modernity to Islam. In Algeria, he examines how such a promising young Islamic democracy could dissolve into civil war. And throughout, Viorst is looking for the answer to what prevents Islam from accepting modernity along with the rest of the world. Through Viorst's forays deep into Islamic history and through the voices of thinkers throughout the Arab world, we gradually appreciate the dilemmas that plague Islamic society and the sincerity with which many men and women are taking to the task of creating a society that allows for the prosperity of Muslims while not forsaking the wisdom that Islam accords to all aspects of life. --Brian Bruya --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Viorst, who examined the roots of Arab economic underdevelopment in Sandcastles (1994), returns to a Middle East beset by a clash among three competing forces?a deeply conservative Muslim orthodoxy; fundamentalists who seek a return to the values of seventh-century Islam; and "modernists," receptive to the West, who comprise a feeble political movement. Astutely blending history, reportage and political analysis, his odyssey gives readers a new lens for comprehending the ferment in the Muslim world. In Iran, where murderous vigilante squads roam the streets, Viorst spoke with activists and intellectuals who question the legitimacy of Khomeini's absolutist Islamic revolution. In Egypt, he gauged Hosni Mubarak's regime, which has tied its fate to Muslim orthodoxy, as ossified. Viorst, who writes with guarded affection for Arab culture, records a 1997 interview with Jordan's King Hussein, whose relatively liberal, tolerant administration has gone furthest in reconciling Islam to the modern world, in the author's opinion. Yet his valuable field reports from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan do not offer much ground for hope. Of special interest is Viorst's probe of France's Muslim community (nearly 10% of the country's population), which faces xenophobic prejudice, restrictive immigration policies and the immigrants' own ambivalence about integrating into French society.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Basic Books; 1st edition (November 15, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0813339022
  • ISBN-13: 978-0813339023
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #882,203 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Milton Viorst
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
ONE EVENING in the fall of 1993, I passed beneath the arch of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem and rediscovered the cobblestone labyrinth of the Old City. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mosque associations
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Muslim Brotherhood, United States, King Hussein, Ben Badis, Prime Minister, World War, Farag Foda, Gulf War, Muslim Brothers, Cairo University, Muhammad Ahmad, Prophet Muhammad, Abu Bakr, France Plus, Interior Ministry, Ali Benhadj, King Fahd, French Islam, House of Saud, Muhammad Abduh, Reza Shah, Hidden Imam, Ibn Hanbal
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Customer Reviews

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10 of 10 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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7 of 7 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 24, 2003
By Themis Matsoukas (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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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6 of 6 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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars an example of "orientalist approach" to the "orient"
The book, particularly the chapters regarding the origins of Islam, fully represents a Western view of Islam and the prophet of Islam, and this is competible with the name of the... Read more
Published 17 months ago by M. KOCAK

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable and Insightful
In an engaging prose Milton Viorst manages to introduce the reader to the different and in many cases diametrically opposed world of Middle Eastern Islam. Read more
Published on October 14, 2005 by R

5.0 out of 5 stars A great Analysis of Arab's Mentality
It is obvious from this book that the Author is in toutch with Arab predicaments and delimmas. The Arab would choose to stay behind and welter in poverty and humilation rather... Read more
Published on January 4, 2003 by Abdou A. Shokr

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book; Necessary Reading
In this book, the astute Mr. Viorst has given us a key to understanding what is going on in the Islamic world today. Read more
Published on September 12, 2002 by Mike Finn

2.0 out of 5 stars journalist not a scholar
Milton Viorst is a veteran journalist, who has written about the Middle East for twenty-five years, mostly for the New Yorker magazine. Read more
Published on August 12, 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh, listen America!
This brilliant book by the New Yorker's former mideast correspondent gets to the heart of why Islam with all its greatness and failings is what it is today. Read more
Published on December 29, 2001 by Leslie H. Whitten

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
This is the best place to start if you want to understand the cross-currents in contemporary Islamic culture and the many contradictory forces at work. Read more
Published on December 20, 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Seeing the past in the present to anticpate the future
The author smoothly presents information on the history and the religious traditions of the Arab world as a means of illuminating the several different currents that compete in... Read more
Published on November 13, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent overview of Middle Eastern originating Islam.
Milton Viorst is the author of a previous book on the Middle East, the well received "Sand Castles". Read more
Published on March 9, 1999 by John Mudd Gonzalez

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for an understanding of the Arab world
Viorst has brilliantly compiled a westerner's primer to understand Islam at the dawn of the millenium. Read more
Published on December 26, 1998

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