Rating: 
Summary: Sadly, it is front page news!
Review: "All the massacres that have taken place in recent years, like most of the bloody wars, have been linked to complex and long-standing 'cases' of identity." (p.33).
The need to belong.
The need to identify with a certain group, be it ethnical, linguistic, racial, political, or religious.
The main reason that I give this book five stars is because I feel that it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do... which is not so much to change the world, as to set out prerequisites for change, and to theoretically elucidate and practically illustrate why the world is in the shape that is in today.
"What shape is that?" you may justifiably ask.
"Misshapen" Maalouf might answer. "Distorted."
Not what it ought to be. And more importantly, not what is COULD be. This is not a book about despair, or about resignation to fate. It is not a backward look at problems, but a forward glance, a look into the author's sense that "the future will be what we make it." (p.98). It speaks to the responsibility inherent in all of us, no matter who we are, no matter where we live, to begin to identify with a concept of planetary solidarity, as opposed to regional and ideological exclusion.
I think it would be safe to say that Maalouf argues that such a radical paradigmatic shift is not only essential to the maintenance of "humanity" it is also the only thing that can ensure our very survival.
I challenge anyone who does not agree with Maalouf's emphasis upon the importance of identity, to read any one chapter of this book, and then pick up any major newspaper of our day and age. Sad to say, but this book is front page news... every damn day! In its PRE-9/11-ness, (written in 1996) this book is a prophetic scroll unearthed. Hence, in its POST-9/11-ness, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance.
For me, a great benefit of reading the thing, was to see the history of Christianity and Islam in a way that I had never considered before. Wow!
Also, while not being in any way a condemnation of democracy, Maalouf outlines several reasons why the West's unquestioned veneration of democracy ought to be tempered with a realization that there are vantage points other than (and higher than) Mount McKinley's, from which Western ideals are looked upon, by other people of this earth.
One of the most crucial questions this book forces the reader to ask themself is this: "To what extent is the global culture, as it develops daily, essentially Western or even specifically American?" (p.114).
This is a short book. Easily readable. You will enjoy it, trust me... you will wish he wrote more, not less!
You owe it to yourself, if you are a thinking person, to think about reading this book. And then, after thinking about it, do it.
"Life is a creator of differences." (p.20).
"I dream not of a world where religion no longer has any place but of one where the need for spirituality will no longer be associated with the need to belong." (p.96).
I can't dream of a worthier dream being dreamed by any dreamer.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly, it is front page news!
Review: "All the massacres that have taken place in recent years, like most of the bloody wars, have been linked to complex and long-standing 'cases' of identity." (p.33).
The need to belong.
The need to identify with a certain group, be it ethnical, linguistic, racial, political, or religious.
The main reason that I give this book five stars is because I feel that it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do... which is not so much to change the world, as to set out prerequisites for change, and to theoretically elucidate and practically illustrate why the world is in the shape that is in today.
"What shape is that?" you may justifiably ask.
"Misshapen" Maalouf might answer. "Distorted."
Not what it ought to be. And more importantly, not what is COULD be. This is not a book about despair, or about resignation to fate. It is not a backward look at problems, but a forward glance, a look into the author's sense that "the future will be what we make it." (p.98). It speaks to the responsibility inherent in all of us, no matter who we are, no matter where we live, to begin to identify with a concept of planetary solidarity, as opposed to regional and ideological exclusion.
I think it would be safe to say that Maalouf argues that such a radical paradigmatic shift is not only essential to the maintenance of "humanity" it is also the only thing that can ensure our very survival.
I challenge anyone who does not agree with Maalouf's emphasis upon the importance of identity, to read any one chapter of this book, and then pick up any major newspaper of our day and age. Sad to say, but this book is front page news... every damn day! In its PRE-9/11-ness, (written in 1996) this book is a prophetic scroll unearthed. Hence, in its POST-9/11-ness, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance.
For me, a great benefit of reading the thing, was to see the history of Christianity and Islam in a way that I had never considered before. Wow!
Also, while not being in any way a condemnation of democracy, Maalouf outlines several reasons why the West's unquestioned veneration of democracy ought to be tempered with a realization that there are vantage points other than (and higher than) Mount McKinley's, from which Western ideals are looked upon, by other people of this earth.
One of the most crucial questions this book forces the reader to ask themself is this: "To what extent is the global culture, as it develops daily, essentially Western or even specifically American?" (p.114).
This is a short book. Easily readable. You will enjoy it, trust me... you will wish he wrote more, not less!
You owe it to yourself, if you are a thinking person, to think about reading this book. And then, after thinking about it, do it.
"Life is a creator of differences." (p.20).
"I dream not of a world where religion no longer has any place but of one where the need for spirituality will no longer be associated with the need to belong." (p.96).
I can't dream of a worthier dream being dreamed by any dreamer.
Rating:
Summary: Eschewing the Simplism
Review: Amin Maalouf begins this series of essays tautologically. At first, Maalouf is telling me that I am special and so is everyone else. I almost put away "The Nature of Identity." His theme, then, took on complexity and subtlety. So do wade through the preliminaries, you will be repaid for your patience.Of course, we are all singular. Of course, we all have shifting identities, depending on our context; answering the question, "Who needs an education about what I represent today?" We are introduced to the fact that Mr. Maalouf is a Lebanese Christian who speaks Arabic, and now lives in France. Then Mr. Maalouf begins bringing things home. In this age we are very concerned about the nature of Islam, and how we should regard its prospects in the world. Maalouf establishes that Islam is not, by nature, a religion for radicals. Islam tolerated alternative views of the world in a way unknown to medieval and renaissance Christianity (which butchered its dissidents). Islam was the midwife of modernism for chrissakes. Through Islam we of Western European Christian descent received the cannon of greek philosophy, the foundation of our philosophical world view. What then is the force radicalizing Islam, Maalouf asks. What is the force leading to radicalization in almost every other form of identity, environmentalism, Christianity, Maalouf asks. Globalization, he answers. Consistently Maalouf reminds us that people are changed by and change their religion, their identity, their allegiances. We are constantly interacting with our social context. Radicalism is on the rise because all groups, from Timothy McVeigh to Osama bin Laden, feel overwhelmed by the rising tide of what appears an unstoppable globalization. We all, in some sense, feel helpless before this tide. Maalouf views this sense of threat as legitimate. Yet, Maalouf argues, it need not be so. We are in charge of our destiny, we are so much more alike than we are different in this world today. We can all be represented in this globalization tide, although the path is unfamiliar and unsure. This is a collection of essays in which the tensions and solutions rise together to a very satisfying crescendo. There is no pedantry, nor a trace of condescension in this short powerful book. To my mind, we have received in this volume a very workable program for diffusing the radicalism that so besets our world. At the same time, we receive a program for more comfortably realizing each one of us is a plural and singular entity. This book finds its origin in anger against those who demand that each person must assert ONE identity, ONE allegiance. Maalouf skillfully establishes that we are plural in identity and allegiance. And if this is realized by most, we have the prospect of a future more of peace than war.
Rating:
Summary: A great buy, and a great read.
Review: Amin Malouf not only presents us with one of the most eloquent , credible, and compassionate explanation of the real roots of violence , hatred and bigotry , but he also sets a standard of how an intelligent and honest search for the truth should read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Amine Maalouf was able to put words into my thoughts. I really enjoyed every page of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Identity crisis and its impact
Review: Fate can best be described as, what fate is to man is what wind is to a sail. The wind cannot be controlled; it is unpredictable. A helmsman can take his boat to a disaster; while another can use the same wind and maneuver to a safe harbor. Everyone is given circumstances and situations (fate) and it is how one can overcome them and use them to be at an advantage. However the relationship between this environment and us are more in depth than it may seem; as at the core of this lies our identity. The arrangement of how aware and melded one is with the environment; surroundings and society; to the point of being integrated into it seamlessly is the image of a successful person. It is when our identity is in conflict is when one will seem to be on a path to disaster. Identity is the core of it; as Mallouf states that each one has a vertical identity that we inherit from our ancestors; culture; religion; upbringing and a horizontal identity that we inherit from our surroundings; society and environment. The two must be at harmony for any lapses of identity; for it is when our identity is at stake then one will be in a state of rebellion to get recognized. To state an example; Turkish migrants to Germany who are more fluent in German than their heritage language would be in direct conflict; while a American migrant to England would find the same norms in his new environment where he has a sense of acceptance and can identify himself with the masses. It seems that Karl Marx statement `It is not the survival of the fittest but the survival of the most adaptive' has a lot of relevance in our times. Our times are marked by an absolute estate of bewilderment or a web of confusion. The rapid pace of technological development, information dispersion and accessible transportation, has not shrunk the world but gotten cultures in proximity. The interaction of cultures; the voices of the minorities may not be heard creating rebellion to prevent their identity to be forced into extinction. With the present trend of globalization, which too many is a camouflage, masquerade more like a Trojan horse concealing an attempt for domination of the western culture. A means to impose on the whole world one language, one economic system, political and social system, one way of life one scale of values. At the heart of this conflict is our identity crises; many of the fellow beings see globalization not as a great enriching amalgam with advantages for all; but as an improvishment; a threat that each individual needs to fight against in order to preserve his own culture, identity and value. This book attempts not is sociological but on a philosophical way the breath of ills in form of terrorism the world is facing. Amin being from the area has a clear grasp of the isolation and aloofness a significant portion of the world is facing from the decision making process of our times. For the above said reasons it is a helpful guide in some way to understand us.
Rating:
Summary: Small Size, Major Containment
Review: One of the major issues of modern history is that it is so extensively filled with dramatic events, that it often is difficult to spot the connections and total images. The answers that follow every grand work of historic and political research seldom outnumber the questions. But with this book of Amin Maalouf, I might say that we have come a bit closer to catching up. Amin Maalouf is born in Lebanon in 1949, and worked as a journalist in the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar before he moved to France in 1977. Since Maalouf, a Christian Lebanese, resident in France, with Arabic as native tongue and French as everyday language, he, as with Edward Saïd, accomplishes very special conditions to write this kind of essays. In other words, his life expresses one of the most jammed ideological road junctions in the world.
His background has practically speaking coerced him to perform some highly detailed thinking concerning the existence of his identity, because he never has been able to take it for granted. "In The Name of Identity", or "Les Identités meurtrières" in French, is small in number of pages and Maalouf's thoughts are uncomplicated and concise mediated, but the containment has yet extraordinary historical value. It is a brave contribution to how we can understand the roles of violence, religion, culture and colonialism throughout history. One of the most important points in Maalouf's book is that the cultural identity of human beings shifts in different phases of their lives. It is a great danger in getting to closely tied to one single side of cultural attachments, whether it is religious, ethnical or national. At the same time it is substantial to not explain everything seen in light of religion, but also connect the fact that religious, historical (by this, he means political), cultural and material circumstances influence each other mutually. Maalouf deliberates this with examples from conflicts where violence and identity cleavages work together as twin mechanisms, e.g. the Middle East, South-Africa, Rwanda and Algeria.
Another inevitable point of Maalouf is when he makes us aware of that Christianity not always - if ever - has been the bearer of theological pluralism, political harmony and tolerance. For several centuries it was Islam that inhabited these particular values, while Christianity was the narrow-minded, material, violent and suppressive religion. Another author worth mentioned in this connection is the Norwegian Jens Bjørneboe, which with the so-called "trilogy of the history of bestiality" from the 1960s, merciless disclose the brutal history of Christian missionaries and "adventure expeditions" in the name of God. In academic circles may we include the work of professor in social anthropology Thomas Hylland Eriksen at the University of Oslo, and especially his book called "Bak fiendebildet - Islam og verden etter 11.september". Also this literary contribution is remarkably readable, and based upon the new world enemy lines that occurred after September 11, 2001.
A particular strength of Amin Maalouf is his ability to never reduce a statement to a certain ideological bias. He admits instantly that Islam also represents a history of harsh violence and material greed, especially in post-colonial times. Fundamentalists, ultra-ortodoxian and extremists have during all times done their most to claim a moral right to kill in religion's name. What religion that strongest have promoted despotism and hostility towards for example information rights alternate in history.
A third interesting theory Maalouf propose, is when he claims that social renewal and modernism the last five centuries - no matter where you live on the planet - has been synonymous with the upgrades of western civilization standards. The conditions of being the receiving part to people within the "loosing" culture become completely different than for people in western countries. To the "loosing" part the consequences might be that they feel they must abandon elements of their own identity, and deal with deep emotional questions that contains enthusiasm, inspiration, bitterness, humiliation, self-denial and identity crisis.
It is not impossible that this may be an actual explanatory basis to what happened in de-colonized countries after World War II. Instead of turning outwards to the rest of the world and integrating some parts of political or cultural inventions that could be useful for them, some power groups directed their energy towards internal originality. Another important author of post-colonial history, Franz Fanon, phrased it in a subtle sentence: They made it honorable to wear African sandals instead of European shoes. This kind of national self-centralization was not something that they really wished for, but something they found necessary to keep the outer world's political and cultural pressure at a balanced level.
The immediate thought is: what if the present situation in the Arabic world in their consequences is similar to the one in post-colonial countries? What if the western world through their modern cultural agenda has subdued the pan-Arabic culture to introvert itself? Are the effects of forced "westernization" a reason to common aversion and have it made the Muslim regions turn their original openness into polarized hostility, imperialist antipathy and simplified scapegoat hate? I leave these questions open for new readers to interpret. This little book of Amin Maalouf is all in all a solid input in the debate concerning the forced integration of nations, religions and morality. In addition to this it is a modern book with reflexive considerations about violence and religion as driving forces in historic processes. In a time where almost every field of scientific research is filled to the edge with innumerable details and intriguing accuracy, it's relieving to read a brief and informative essay like this. We sometimes need to simplify the world, but only if the simplifications are good.
And best of all: its first edition was written before September 11, 2001.
Rating:
Summary: Identity
Review: One would find it difficult, if not impossible, to find a conflict in our world that is not dirrectly related to Identity.
I found this book very Interesting and easy to read and practical.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughful and thought provoking essay
Review: Valuable essay on the issues behind modern conflict, genocide, and violence, as well as elements of personal motivation. The drive to express and emote one's identity can lead to violence and conflict. Modernity and Globalism increase the conflicts and frustrations -- both fight and flight. Reflecting with the author will deepen any reader's understanding and also perhaps suggest the dark side of Nationalisms and Religions -- especially when they threaten another's authenticity and self-expression. Goods book for those who want to think about contemporary history and the future rather than merely read narrative.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry, but I just didn't find it very enlightening
Review: Violence and the Need to Belong. This is the subtitle for Amin Maalouf's In the Name of Identity. It's unfortunate, because Maalouf only dances around the subject of violence, though he does discuss at length the topic of the need to belong. Of course, the proper subject for this personal and extended essay is identity. What does it mean? How does one get an identity? How many can one have, and how important are they? Does a group identity change over time? Maalouf hits most of these topics in the first of four sections in the book, and presents a good foundation for the subject. This is an important topic. Why does a person identify himself, if he does, as primarily a member of a certain group? Typically it is a religious or perhaps a political group. We all know of people who consider themselves Muslims first, and all other considerations are trivial. To a feminist, being a woman is the be-all end-all of existence. And so on. How does such a person arrive at such a devotion to a group identity?
Unfortunately, I didn't mind much in the way of answers. This is not a historical text, or a political one. It is, I would guess, somewhat sociological or philosophical. But it is really a personal, from the heart essay covering the author's thoughts.
In the second part of the book Maalouf tries to discuss group identity in the modern world, and those group identities that do not react well to modernity. It is here, I thought, that the book more or less ran out of steam. Though a Lebanese Christian, Maalouf presents several defenses of Islam including some creative history that detracts somewhat from the book's trustworthiness. Also discussed is the idea of The West, but I can't say I got much out of it. Perhaps I'm expecting too much from such a thin book, but there are chapter sequences in which Maalouf seems to be trying to say everything and ends up saying very little.
After some mention of globalization, Maalouf reaches the point where he wants to offer some solutions to problems of excessive group identity. Taming the Panther is how he puts it, on the grounds that a panther will kill you if you attack it and it will kill you if you don't attack it, but it can be tamed. But the only real advice is to send the panther to language classes. This is not, of course, a bad idea. Learning a language never hurt anyone. But Maalouf spends quite a bit of time explaining why learning English is not the answer. I'm going to, gasp, invoke my American identity here. Maalouf suggests that besides a person's native language, which is obviously not English for most people on Earth, a person should learn the basics of English and then pick a third language to study deeply out of love for it. Am I being picky in wondering why only native speakers should know English well? I probably wouldn't even have noticed except that the author goes on and on about this, and his conclusion does really seem to be that English should not be the deeply learned language of choice, but is simply a business communication tool. As a footnote, Maalouf states that more and more it will become a serious hardship to only know English. This is simply not the case. Less and less is only knowing English a problem. Having lived abroad for over two years, and knowing only fragmentary German, one can survive passably well in the world (at least this part of it). I'm not proud of this, but it's a fact, and the situation is probably getting easier over time.
It would be unfair of me not to say that sprinkled liberally throughout the book are many times where the reader is forced to think "Good point", or "Good example", and although it's hard to identify a sustained train of thought, the author does keep our attention roughly on the topic. Maalouf is a skilled writer, and the reader could do much worse than this book to get a handle on such a large subject.
But in the end, I couldn't see what the reader should have gotten out of this work. The questions it raises are important, and Maalouf fleshes them out well in the beginning. But after that, frankly, it's largely rambling. The author discusses points he feels are important, but never really gets back to the main issues. In the end, it's mostly anecdotal. And the question printed on the back cover of my copy, "What turns ordinary men into butchers and fanatics?" is never even close to answered.
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