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