The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror

by Bernard Lewis

Hardcover, 2003

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Status

Available

Description

In his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world. The Crisis of Islam ranges widely through thirteen centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today: the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States. While hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Brilliantly disentangling the crosscurrents of Middle Eastern history from the rhetoric of its manipulators, Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award–winning article for The New Yorker, The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Usama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Niecierpek

Audio read by the author.
Very interesting. Written by the Princeton University Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, this book is a great extension to Armstrong’s book about Islam. It examines the history of Islam and Middle Eastern countries from the perspective of Eastern Western

relationships. It pays particular attention to the twentieth century and the establishment of such countries as Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, but charts the history of the region from 8th century onwards.
Lewis draws our attention to the fact that while the hostility towards the European West has deep roots in the Islamic world due to the Western colonization, the hostility towards the United States is a new phenomenon which started only after the downfall of the Soviet Union, seen as an Eastern ally and counter-balance to the West. He also points out that the phenomenon of suicide bombers is new and without precedent, since even the ‘assassins’ never committed suicide.

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LibraryThing member name99

Very disappointing.
Bernard Lewis is interesting when he sticks to history, but this is very little history and mostly political opinion.

LibraryThing member timspalding

Excellent work. Get the audiobook; he reads it himself. Oakes is wrong.

LibraryThing member jaygheiser

An excellent summary of the curent state of the Islamic mindset. What they are thinking, and what lead to that. Useful cultural interpretation of the environment out of which today's terrorists originate.

LibraryThing member irishwasherwoman

A book club selection. I read much of it, but also listened to a reading of it by the author. If you want to begin to understand Islam and the modern world, this is an excellent start. It is so clearly written. Fascinating, yet unsettleing. I still like Thomas Friedman's from "Beruit to Jerusalem"

the best, even though it may be somewhat dated by now.

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LibraryThing member gmicksmith

In this slim volume Lewis artfully explains the complexity of Islam in brief but understandable terms. The work would be a useful introduction for anyone seeking to learn reliably and usefully how to explain the Islamic holy war against the West. It is superseded by many more comprehensive works

but Lewis does not claim to go beyond the introductory in this short work. Lewis is on less sure ground, and more controversial on his political and diplomatic points but I do not see him straying from an accurate and factual account of Islam regardless of what his critics argue.

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LibraryThing member bdtrump

This work takes an excessively academic and abstract view of war and violence in the Middle East - leaving a feeling of lots of research with little substance. The historical discussion is well done, but the reader isn't really left with any true lessons or morals to take away at the end of the

work. The last chapter is particularly frustrating, and seems more of a rationale for invasion than anything else.

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LibraryThing member danoomistmatiste

Yet another book on the threat posed by fundamentalists and this one ends with this ominous warning "If the fundamentalists are correct in their calculations and succeed in their war, then a dark future awaits the world".

LibraryThing member buffalogr

The subject sounded promising, but the actual result was a boring, detailed account. The historical view was wound up like a boring college history lesson; unfamiliar names and places with zero motivation to listen. Perhaps better to read than to listen to. The author reads like a prepared speech

and speaks very fast with a British accent devoid of the letter "R". Not my kind of book. DNF.

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