A World Without Islam - Softcover

Fuller, Graham E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316041203 ISBN 13: 9780316041201

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2011

Synopsis

This extremely provocative and illuminating "what if" journey through history, geopolitics, and religion investigates whether there is something unique in Islam and its followers that breeds violence and conflict. Spanning the rise of Muhammad to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the present day, the book examines and analyzes the roots of terrorism, the conflicts in Israel and Chechnya, and the role of Islam in supporting and energizing the anti-imperial struggle.

Fuller's startling conclusion? Contrary to the claims of many of today's most respected politicians, thinkers, theologians, and soldiers, East-West relations in a world without Islam might not look vastly different from what we see today. And, thankfully, such recognition provides a map to a more peaceful future, making A WORLD WITHOUT ISLAM both a brilliant examination of the past and a visionary look forward.

About this title

About the Author:

Graham E. Fuller is a former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA, in charge of long-range strategic forecasting. He is an adjunct professor of history at Simon Fraser University and the author of numerous books about the Middle East.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Challenging commentators who regard Islam as the seedbed of anti-Western terrorism, Fuller argues that the perilous tensions between the West and the Middle East spring from nonreligious sources, not Islamic theology. Fuller defends his provocative thesis by showing that long before Muhammad, the peoples of the Middle East viewed the Western powers as interlopers. Readers explore, in particular, the ways the eleventh- and twelfth-century Christian crusaders against Islam were replaying scripts written by Roman Catholic authorities, who suppressed heresies in the Levant and then waged doctrinal war against the patriarchs of Eastern Orthodoxy. The persistence of pre-Islamic resentments surfaces most tellingly in the willingness of Catholic crusaders to ignore the Muslims long enough to sack the Christian (but Eastern Orthodox) city of Constantinople for political and economic reasons. These reasons for regional conflict continued, as Fuller illustrates, after the Protestants’ revolt and Russia’s emergence as a new Byzantium. Fuller thus dares to suggest that overcoming the twenty-first-century anti-Western animosities of Middle Eastern Muslims requires an honest and historically informed assessment of economic and political inequities that moves us beyond a fixation on religious issues. This exceptional inquiry finally sustains a quite specific—and controversial—set of recommendations for reframing American foreign policy. --Bryce Christensen

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0316041203
• ISBN 13: 9780316041201
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336