Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars (Perennial Philosophy Series)

Rating:
Summary: An assessment of the conflict between Islam and the West
Review:
This book, Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition, examines the foundations of the Muslim faith and the historic conflict between Islam and the West, which can be traced clear to the Crusades and beyond. The book is composed of several essays by young Muslim scholars who understand and were brought up in the Western world, and are probably best qualified to speak to the subject.

The editor, Joseph Lumbard, founder of the Islamic Research Institute and himself a Muslim is currently Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Cairo. He is a specialist in Sufiism, which is the respected mystical branch of Islam.

These essays present contextual analyses of of the spiritual aspects of Islam, and provide the spiritual bases for its political dimensions, and, introspectively, examine some fallacies which have led to political errors and erroneous beliefs. Using the Qu'ran as the authority, errors on both the side of Islamic and Western cultures are examined.

This appears to be a learned book, examining many misconceptions about Islam by Westerners dating back to the Crusades, as well as misinterpretations on the part of many Muslims, especially when it comes to Jihads, terrorism and hatred of the West.

Westerners these days, accustomed to television images of screaming crowds of young Muslim men, women and even children, waving AK-47s in the air and frequently firing same, and howling hate while waving bloody, burning American flags sometimes while dragging the bodies of Americans through the street, may perhaps be forgiven for a less than charitable view if Islam. Especially considering the many past acts of violence taken against innocent Westerners, including recent beheadings, torture and rapine of kidnap victims.

The Arabic world has shown a hatred for the Jewish community in Israel almost unparalleled in history, especially since the Jewish people returned to their ancient homeland after the horrors of the Second World War and carved out a nation, and in the process displacing some Arabic peoples who considered the land theirs.

But probably every square yard of habitable land on earth has a history of multiple owners, from whom it has been taken at one time or another, often by force. That, and religious differences, are probably the two greatest causes of conflict between human beings.

Virtually all religions, to people who believe otherwise, can be shown to look ridiculous in their core beliefs--none, perhaps, any more ridiculous than any other on their face.

Differences are visceral, often violent, and seem insurmountable. It will be the rare human being, indeed, who will tolerate the infidel spitting on his belief system and holy places.

For the person who wishes to learn about the Muslim's true belief system, this may be a valuable book. For the average American, brought up in their own faith, the book's usefulness may be dubious, since curiousity about the beliefs of those who have sworn to kill you is less important than useful methods of defense against their acts of terrorism, and sorting out those who mean you no harm as opposed to those who hate you. All else may fall into the realm of the academic. The niceties of doctrinal differences between Shiites and Sunnis, etc., are easily lost when you are busily dodging bullets from both sides, and especially when the differences are in interpretations of a book in which you do not believe in the first place.

This is a scholarly book, coming at a time when the world is on fire and the combatants care very little about the subject matter anymore, or for that matter about the scholars who are writing on the subject.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books.

Rating:
Summary: View from a Marine
Review: Ever since standing on the flight deck of the USS Midway in late February 1980 watching the calm, warm waters comprising what was then called Gonzo Station recede in the ship's wake, I have tried to uncover insights into what was compelling the peoples of that restless corner of the world to act in ways I couldn't quite comprehend. Gonzo Station was a "box of water" at the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz where the aircraft carrier from which I been flying was tethered for 90-plus days. The USS Midway was the 1st major US warship to sortie towards the Arabian Sea in response the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran. We flew one helluva of bunch of armed reconnaissance sorties in preparation for the ill-fated operation rescue attempt at Desert One in the sands of Iran. I left Gonzo Station with concern that we would be back. Several years later, I was fortunate to be selected by the Marine Corps to attend a respected graduate school in New England, where I decided to attempt to gain greater understanding as to what had driven the mullahs, imams, and ayatollahs to become so "political." But at that time, much of the scholarly writing on this topic was limited to work by individuals, generally all Muslims, born and reared in the Middle East but now living in the West. As much as they attempted to write from a perspective that would allow a WASP male like myself understand how stresses in Islam were beginning to manifest themselves in the political life of nations, they failed - - at least as I saw it. That is why Dr Lumbard's book Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betray of Tradition is an essential key for a male WASP like this retired Marine to try anew to understand the complex societal, cultural, and religious linkages behind the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon, and most recently, the latest act of war performed against America by certain twisted practitioners of Isalm - - namely, the horrendous attacks of 9/11. The contributors to this book and its editor speak to me in a manner I can readily understand. Of particular note is the chapter on "The Decline of Knowledge and the Rise of Ideology in the Islamic World" by the book's editor. It identified the net effect of the failures in the general and religious education systems of these nations and why the minds of young males are such fertile ground for manipulation. For persons such as myself who remain curious as to how events arise that have effected my private and professional lives, the opportunity afforded to me by this book regarding insights into the role of Islam within the lives of its believers from a convert who may have grown up or lived just down the street from me is invaluable. There is a reason why Christians or Jews convert to the other Abrahamic faith. If their god is the same god to whom we refer with the words "In God We Trust" on our money or etched on the walls of our most sacred buildings (and I believe he or she is), then we need more books like this one to enable us to feel completely "at ease" living with "non-jihadist" Muslims, born or converted. We must continue to search out the good in Islam so that our nation's policies towards Middle Eastern countries can be more effectively recast while we hunt down to their death those fundamentalist who have betrayed the traditions of this great faith.

Stephen T York
Lieutenant Colonel, USMC Retired


Rating:
Summary: Suspicious of Islamophobia¿then read differently!
Review: In the climate of the current widely orchestrated Islamophobic assessment, this book is a powerfully fresh set of articles to bring to bear against those who are ignorant of Islam's true existence. Throughout the chapters I was confronted/reassured with numerous arresting counter-facts. In the article The Myth of Militant Islam I found out that the Quranic advice "Slay them wheresoever you find them" is located within the very same sentence as "and turn them out wherever they have turned you out," interpreted by the vast majority of historic and current Islamic scholars to refer not to Christians and Jews of the Book but specifically to those polytheist Meccans who cruelly harried the first few adherents to the message of Muhammad. Several other commonly bantered-about Quranic phrases are shown in their true and respectful light. In the article The Decline of Knowledge and the Rise of Ideology in the Modern Islamic World the editor masterfully emphasizes the great degree of effort which traditional Islam gave in wedding knowledge to religious doctrine and action. Historically and even currently, Muslim sufi circles waxed and waned in popularity and influence within the Islamic world. This historic knowledge-spirituality synthesis has faded somewhat, to be replaced by various accretions of discarded Western ideologies reconstituted by liberalizing Muslim modernists and doctrinaire (stringent) Muslim reformists in the form of pseudo-Islamic theological and philosophical writings. Thus, what began as the anti-religious Renaissance and Enlightenment attack against Christianity's religious and intellectual synthesis has been partially ingested into Muslim writings. Stringent reformist Muslims, in a confused reaction to being confrontated with Western science and secularism, now struggle side by side with the Muslim modernists as they move toward some future undescribed goal, both paradoxically unaware of their accord in accepting the secular Western scientific paradigm that eventually runs counter to the body of religious ethics and laws which they as Muslims yet try to preserve. In the article A Traditional Islamic Response to the Rise of Modernism one is alerted to the figure of Maulana Thanvi, an Indian Sufi born in 1863, who chastised certain modernist Islamic thinkers by using an Islamic set of spiritually intellectual arguments to expose the erroneous assumptions of invading Enlightenment ideologies such as naturalism, rationalism, empiricism and scientism. In contrast to the Christian West's willful divorce of knowledge from religion and the subsequent kowtowing to modernism, there exists in today's Islam a surprising amount of intellectual integration within the religious universe, drawing upon the vast store of Islamically integrated thought and wisdom. In the article Recollecting the Spirit of Jihad the true and long understood meaning of this term, maliciously abused now by several sides, is nobly resurrected to its deeply sacred and enviable conceptualization. Historic and recent examples of tolerant Muslim warriors in Spain, Algeria, Dagestan and Afghanistan involving inter- and intra-religious dimensions are recounted, making it apt be speak of a Christian chivalry mirrored in the Islamic world. The article The Muslim World and Globalization: Modernity and the Roots of Conflict alerts one to the catastrophic misjudgment by today's most popular policy-making circles in presuming that Islamic people are supposed to simply throw garlands of flowers around forced "instant democratization," which ends up being a cover for, and heavily dependent upon, capitalistic economies of historically problematic performance. This most broad-scoped article excoriates globalization, spells out the inherent ethical conflicts between modern and traditional Islamic economic systems, and makes dubious the claim that Western-style democracy will make Islamic life better, noting that traditional and current Islamic societal structures already exemplify respectable democratic-like characteristics and universal ethical norms.

In these articles, the realization unfolds that the presence of that body of the Muslim population who are neither "fundamentalist" nor moderate/modernist is in actuality the vast majority, and they are properly called traditional orthodox mainstream Muslims. This category is holistic: it excludes intellectually repulsed "fundamentalists" and religiously-embarrased moderates. What is simply not true is the simpleton claim made on this week's Sunday morning TV weekend roundup that 95% of all Muslims are "moderate traditional Muslims...."

In short, I came to this collection of articles as a life-long American Muslim witness to the besmirchment of Islam that is currently being attempted. Like-minded and otherwise interested readers will find a repletion of alternative arguments, in several topics of interest, to bring to bear against the current spectacle of slanted and uninformed print and electronic media. The picture of past and present portrayed by this book certainly paints a more substantial and hopeful base from which to redirect the current Islamic debates. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: Robert Spencer and Bin Ladin would cry.....
Review: In the wake of the tragic events in New York. Many americans were confused about thier muslim nieghbors. Many seek answers of the events explained by extreme views that islam is a violent religion that threatens america. For years i seen politicians, journalists, and evangalists try to show islam to be a religion threatening to americans for there own personal gains. In this book, it reveals from sound islamic scholarship that islam is not a relgion for extremists or warmongers. It gives the approach from legitamate scholarship that was reconized by the majority of muslim scholars all throughout the history of islam. The books shows in a good manner to average westerners and confused muslims how reformists who broke away from the fold of the majority try to make up there own ways of religion for political and personel gain. Basically heretics. It gives how they rose and the ideas that gave roots to them. For a person trying to find truth in this crazy situation that we americans find ourselves i think you would find it very enlightening. But if you want to beleive in Robert Spencer's, Daniel Pipe's, Hal Lindsey's, Ibn Warraq's, and Bin Ladin's interpetation of islam then this book isnt for you. This view point comes from a muslim convert who study indepthly of this religion for many years and conversed with many of the great muslim scholars on many issues. I am also a patriotic american who served in Operation Iraqi freedom in the war against Terrorism to help keep America safe. This book from my studies is what i feel helps keep america safe.

Rating:
Summary: Suspicious of Islamophobia?then read differently!
Review: It is with the highest confidence that I recommend this superlative book. For almost three years I've been trying to reconcile the contradictory definitions of Islam (and more importantly political Islam) set by both the religion's detractors and adherents. Finally Joseph Lumbard's book paints a lucid picture of the plight of modern Islam, the precarious struggle between Islamic traditionalism and modernism, and the intellectual slip-ups of the religion's "fundamentalist" misinterpreters. Of course some essays are stronger than others (see the Winter article), though the book is consistent in its high level of scholarship. In fact, it sets the standard for the post 9-11 Islamic academic discourse. At 14 bucks, this book is a steal on many levels (not the least of which being its high-quality printing and format), and I highly recommend it for anybody remotely interested in Islam, political science, religious studies, or current events. If you, like me, feel that nobody has adequately explained and analyzed the seemingly insane and indiscriminate nature of terrorism and its neoconservative response from a socio-religious perspective, then this is THE book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Bright new scholarship based on intellectual tradition
Review: Scholarship in the field of Islamic studies has improved steadily since the 1970's. Whereas Islam was often viewed as a monolith, and from an orientalist perspective, current scholarship has been more informed of the realities of the religion. Unfortunately recent popular media and writing has tended to reverse this positive trend and outlook. Many books, articles and classes are back to portraying Islam and Muslims in terms of divisive characterizations. Muslims tend to be viewed as "fundamentalist", modernist or opposed to Western civilization. The spiritual dimension of the religion, Sufism, is often viewed as outside the core foundations of the religion. The divisive perceptions by both Muslims and non-Muslims reflect some actual situations but do not contribute to much needed mutual understanding.
The authors of this work demonstrate that only with an integrated approach, which includes the depth of the spiritual tradition within Islam, may issues in the current crisis be addressed and lasting solutions found.
What is unique about this book is that it explains the current situation and crisis we are facing (particularly as a result of the terrible tragedy of September 11th) based on a more complete understanding of the Islamic intellectual tradition. This tradition always refers back to a metaphysical, meta-historical Reality defined not only by Islamic revelation, but by all the world's great religious traditions. It would be easier to simply state positive aspects of Islam without rising to the challenge of addressing the specific problems, issues and negative images the Western media has confronted Muslims with. It is even more rare to see these issues addressed from the perspective of a long-standing intellectual tradition based on sacred texts and writings of eminent figures in the past and modern eras. The authors in this book manage to incorporate sound scholarship and critical analysis using the resources of the spiritual and intellectual tradition of Islam to address the difficult questions now challenging the Islamic view.
The book edited by Joseph Lumbard includes: a foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr; a Qur'anic analysis of the term "Jihad" by David Dakake; a study of the decline of knowledge based on the Islamic intellectual tradition of "Ihsan" by Joseph Lumbard; a response to modern secularism by Fuad Naeem; an analysis of the spirit of jihad by Reza Shah-Kazemi; a view of the roots of modern misconceptions of Islam by Ibrahim Kalin; an application of game theory as a strategy for dealing with the politics of terrorism by Waleed El-Ansary; a Muslim response to the social, economic and political impacts of globalization by Ejaz Akram; and a perspective on the effects of fanaticism on the Muslim community by T. J. Winter.
This work constitutes a refreshing collection of articles that succeed in stimulating the debate on the current world crisis and in taking account of the problems from an integral approach to Islam.

Rating:
Summary: Different from the usual fare, with rare insights into Islam
Review: There are many books today which deal with the so-called crisis in the Islamic world, from Bernard Lewis' "What Went Wrong?" which takes a narrow and often absurdly one-sided view to the West-Islam problem, to books by Muslims trying to explain away their real shortcomings by blaming everyone but themselves. This book does neither. To my knowledge the perspective that both sides should be embracing a more deep-rooted and traditional practice and understanding of Islam has only appeared in perhaps a few articles in the Western press and in one or two recent books. The rest of the literature out there seems to be caught between either a complete dilution of Islam in favor of modernity or a mindless rejection of all things Western in favor of a cult of zealous legalism.

I reccommend this book for two reasons. First, it starts from a point of view of pragmatism that is refreshing in such an emotional time. A prime example is Ansary's article analyzing Bin Laden's strategy using game theory, which is original and extremely persuasive. Second, it takes into account the vast ocean of Islamic civilization and the intellectual and spiritual history to which it gave rise. Both sides of the issue of Islamic fundamentalism have almost completely insulated themselves from the great tradition of scholarship and traditional spirituality. For example, both Jerry Falwell and Osama bin Laden seem to agree that the Koran allows cart blanche to carry out war as one sees fit (if one is a Muslim). Dakake's article makes it clear that only a total ignoramus or a delusional maniac could accept such an interpretation in light of the history of just war theory in Islam.

In general, one finds insights about Islam and the present situation that it is difficult to find elsewhere. You will not find rehashing of the same tired analysis we are pelted with on a daily basis in our media. Agree or not, the points of view presented here are important and are, to my mind, very persuasive.