A War on Islam? - Softcover

Jan, Abid Ullah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 095398477X ISBN 13: 9780953984770

Publisher: Maktabah, 2001

Synopsis

Many around the world has realised that America's war on terror has changed the face of the modern world. Most of us believe that no longer will negotiation, public opinion, international laws or the United Nations wield any influence on conflicts the roots of which lies in the US policies and its approach towards international relations. Even the staunchest of the US Allies in the so-called US led war on terror believe that the target of this war is the world of Islam and the solution lies in Washington, not Kabul of Riyadh. However, to understand how US policies are the root cause of many problems around the world, one has to have the evidence that has been so logically presented by Abid Ullah Jan in his latest book "A war on Islam?" It helps readers reach at their own conclusion rather than being told that this is, or is not, a war on Islam. The book begins with scanning the intellectual horizon in the western world by giving views from well-known authors, analysts, political leaders and academicians about Islam. This show how the intellectual horrors of the last fifty years have paved the way for the physical horror through which the Muslim world is presently passing with great agony and pains. The book begins with a foreword by General Hamid Gul, former Chief of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), who also hints at the "intellectual alliance" that pushed the military alliance of the Western power into waging a war on the Muslim world. In his words: "I found this book to be a quick review of the intellectual horrors perpetrated by the media and press in the western world. It also reviews the major reasons that make the US-led war on terror doubtful and underlines the response needed on the part of the western public as well as the oppressed Muslims both in occupied and so-called independent Muslim states." Based on the problems with the "war on terrorism," the book is divided into eight major parts and the author has made an excellent effort to explain how yet another catastrophic World War can be avoided simply by understanding the problems prevalent in Muslim societies and the suffering that Muslims are going through due to American and European insistence to maintain the status quo in the arena of their foreign policy. According to the author, Muslims around the world are uneasy with: (1) the vague and open-ended nature of the war against terrorism - vagueness; (2) the thought that the US may be reacting against a religion rather than merely against an organisation - targeting Islam; (3) the reality that ever fewer corporations, all thinking alike, provide the bulk of Americans' information about the world to ordinary Americans - irresponsible media; (4) instances when important actions by the US government are based on fear or cowardice; (5) the extent to which violent attitudes permeate American thinking -

culture of violence; (6) Applying nationally practiced

authoritarianism at international level and imposing governments

that serve US interests regardless of their being democratic or

dictatorships - authoritarianism; (7) the objective to check the imaginary resistance posed by Muslims to a US-dominated world and the barriers to honesty and sincerity in American government - realpolitik; and (8) American efforts to separate Muslims from Islam through the process of militant secularisation. Apart from the introduction and conclusion, eight chapters of the book explain the above-mentioned factors in detail. An interesting aspect of the book is that all these chapters have been develop in interaction with the authors' friends in the US, who discussed and debated each of these points in length. In a way, each chapter includes point of view of the Muslim world as well as answers to the possible concerns or questions that may arise in the western mind after knowing about the genuine grievances of Muslims. Being a native of a Muslim country, and having experience of living in the Wes

About this title

About the Author:

Abid Ullah Jan is a political analyst and development specialist. He studied Chemistry and graduated from the University of London with specialization in Environmental Management. Since the late 1980s, he has published many books and articles on political, resource and community development issues. He has written many important works disclosing the forgery of the fake champions of democracy, human rights and justice, the invalidity of their claims and their dark alliances with the most repressive dictators in the world. As a direct victim of a repressive regime, his books include 'A War on Islam?', which explores the forces that are running the so-called war on terrorism and the bloody occupations in the name of freedom and democracy.

Review:

read this book in early March, just before the US war on Iraq. It was certainly a revelation. -- David Kerr, Ulster Nation, 2002

About this edition

• Publisher: Maktabah
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 095398477X
• ISBN 13: 9780953984770
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 205