Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 428
ISBN/UPC (if available): 185984457X
Description
Author writes lucidly, interweaving his political history with passages from the literature of many Muslim countries, making this book a compelling point of departure for further study of the culture and politics of Islam. Readers will find here much important material that is not easily available elsewhere.
This narrative shows that the harshest critics of fundamentalism are often exponents of a rival fundamentalism. The current antiwar movement would benefit from this historical perspective, ideological clarity, and humor.
Ali's own writing is lucid, not at all dogmatic, consistently humorous and rational, and in both style and content demonstrates an alternative to the texts of the twin fundamentalisms.
REVIEWS
In this timely and important book, Tariq Ali puts the events of September 11 into sweeping historical perspective. As we have come to expect from him, he is lucid, eloquent, literary, and painfully honest, as he dissects both Islamic and Western fundamentalism.
- Howard Zinn
This book is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the nightmare of history from which so many people are struggling to awake, and deserves serious engagement and consideration. Ali broadens our horizons, geographically, historically, intellectually and politically… His mode of history telling is lyrical and engaging, humane and passionate.
-Anthony Arnove, The Nation
Ali’s style is vigorous, his narrative compelling, showing that the short-term, self-interested and oil-greedy policies of the British and Americans in such countries as Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iran must make our much-vaunted ideals of democracy and equity seem like a bad joke.
-Karen Armstrong, The Times
It will not open doors at the white House because it makes for uncomfortable reading…a wide-ranging and powerfully argued critique, that gives pause for thought.
-Financial Times
Ali finds little to distinguish between the organized violence of the United States and that of those who oppose it.
-Sydney Morning Herald
The Clash of Fundamentalisms is well worth reading…it shows that the harshest critics of fundamentalism are often exponents of a rival fundamentalism.
-John Gray, Independent
Ali writes lucidly, interweaving his political history with passages from the literature of many Muslim countries, making The Clash of Fundamentalisms a compelling point of departure for further study of the culture and politics of Islam.
-Village Voice
The current antiwar movement would benefit from his historical perspective, ideological clarity, and humor.
-San Francisco Bay Guardian
Ali’s own writing is lucid, not at all dogmatic, consistently humorous and rational, and in both style and content demonstrates an alternative to the texts of the twin fundamentalism.
-Scotsman
Readers...will find here much important material that is not easily available elsewhere.
-Hugh Montefiore, Church Times
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction to the Paperback Edition
Prologue
PART I: MULLAHS AND HERETICS
An atheist childhood
The origins of Islam
The empire of the world
Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Ottomanism
The joys of heresy
Women versus the eternal masculine
PART II: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SERVITUDE
A spring memory
The roots of Wahhabism
The kingdom of corruption
Zionism, the First Oil War, resistance
Marginal notes on the chapter of defeats
The anti-imperialism of fools
An ocean of terror
PART III: THE NUCLEAR WASTELANDS OF SOUTH ASIA
The case of Anwar Shaikh
Plain tales from Pakistan
Afghanistan: between hammer and anvil
The story of Kashmir
The colour khaki
PART IV: A CLASH OF FUNDAMENTALISMS
A short-course history of US imperialism
September surprise
Letter to a young Muslim
PART V: EPILOGUE: THE ROAD TO BALI
A small town in Java
Islam on the Equator
A tropical gulag
An island made secure
Appendix: On the Israeli-Arab war Isaac Deutscher
Index