Re: Book Suggestions
This is from the other thread.
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Originally Posted by AlicornsPrayer
LOL. Well guess that means we better all start agreeing on which book our little club will start off with then eh?
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My four suggestions have to do with POLITICS and the matter of understanding the greatest political issue of our time, Islam, Arabs, the Middle East, terrorism and the War on Terror.
1. Milestones by Sayyed Qutb (Free online)
The call to action by the Godfather of modern Jihad.
Quote:
Milestones
Sayyid Qutb is easily one of the major architects and "strategists" of contemporary Islamic revival. Along with Maulana Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, the revivalist movement in South Asia, and Imam Khomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, he gave shape to the ideas and the worldview that has mobilized and motivated millions of Muslims from Malaysia to Michigan to strive to reintroduce Islamic practices in their lives and alter social and political institutions so that they reflect Islamic principles. Milestones was written to educate and motivate the potential vanguard of the re-Islamization movement.
Qutb, like most contemporary mujaddids, Islamic revivalists, was distressed with the growing distance between Islamic values, institutions and practices and the emerging postcolonial Muslim societies, specially in his native Egypt. In Milestones, he sought to answer some of the fundamental questions such as why Islam needs to be revived? why no other way of life is adequate? What is the true essence of an Islamic identity and an Islamic existence (he uses the term "concept" to signify these two elements)? How was Islam established by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his companions? Can the same method, which was undoubtedly divine in its conception be replicated again? Qutb is particularly concerned with this issue of "Islamic methodology". He believes that Islamic values and the manner in which they are to be realized (read as were realized by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his glorious companions) both together constitute the faith of Islam.
Relying entirely on the Quran, Qutb uses the concepts of jahiliyya, Islamic concept, Islamic methodology, jihad and Allah's sovereignty, to dilineate the strategy by which Muslims would:
1. realize the true significance and implications of La-ilaha-illallah, having faith in the exclusive unity of Allah (tawhid).
2. understand the imperfections, injustices and moral poverty of jahiliyya.
3. empower themselves by realising the meaning of ashhadu-anna-muhammadur-rasoolullah (bearing witness that Muhammad is Allah's messenger) -- internalizing his method of dawah and submitting to the will and laws of Allah.
4. through this Islamic methodology, as articulated in the Quran and manifested in the practices of Prophet Muhammad, which does not separate theory from practice, and discourse from action, establish an Islamic order. The Islamic order, which is Allah's most significant gift to the entire humanity.
5. The most remarkable aspect of Qutb's book is his insistance on an approach in "stages" and the repeated assertion that the need for implementing Islamic law would not arise until every member of the community had completely submitted to the sovereignty of Allah and by that agreed to live under Allah's laws. Laws would then be framed merely to serve the needs of this "living community of Islam". A far cry from the perception that a handful of Islamists are out to impose an essentialized shariah on all Muslims and non-Muslims living in Muslim lands.
http://www.amazon.com/Milestones-Qut.../dp/0911119426
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2. Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence (Free online)
Quote:
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
I recently had an intense discussion with an Arab friend of mine about the attitude in the Middle East toward the West. I suggested that the Arabs should trust the West and western motives, and laid blame for the instability in the region at the feet of paranoid extremists. My friend sat quietly for a minute, then looked me square in the eye and asked if I really knew what the hell I was talking about?
He asked if I knew anything about Arab history, or had any idea of West's poor track record in the Middle East? I replied that I knew about as much as most Americans. Not much emphasis was placed on Arab history where I went to school. My friend said that I should learn more of the truth of the matter before making judgments about trusting or NOT trusting.
He suggested that if I wanted to know more of the facts I could start with a book called Seven Pillars of Wisdom, A Triumph by Thomas Edward (T.E.) Lawrence. Seven Pillars is the true story of Lawrence of Arabia by the Lawrence himself. He said the book told an exciting story, and contained a great deal of information about the roots of the current socio-political situation in the Middle East. I agreed to read the book, and we dropped the subject.
A week or so later I was exploring the shelves of my favorite used bookstore and found an old paperback edition of Seven Pillars. I had a little trouble getting into the book at first. Some of the syntax was difficult to understand, and some references lost on a modern reader. However, any difficulty with syntax was soon compensated for by the unfolding adventure story.
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/cur...entread02.html
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3. Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America by Dr. Walid Phares
What I believe may be the best book to get a complete and unquestionably insightful and accurate view of who, what, where, when, why and how of the goals and nature of Islam and Jihad.
Quote:
Future Jihad
When the airliners took down the World Trade Center towers, Americans struggled to find answers. They found some, but a discernible haze over the minds and eyes of Americans existed in those post 9/11 days. The truth many failed to realize was that the jihadists were already here. They were in our towers; the ivory ones.
The cloud of confusion in the minds of a majority of Americans, including those in government, had been created by the academic community since the 1970s, according to Walid Phares. He has taught at Florida International University, University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University in addition to lecturing at others.
Phares’ book, Future Jihad, examines the historical context of jihad, the groups of radical Islamists that seek to establish a caliphate, as well as the reasons America was unprepared and left in confusion by the attacks on September 11, 2001. Phares is a terrorism and Mid-East expert for MSNBC/NBC as well as a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington D.C.
“Endless numbers of scholars, opinion makers, and foreign policy bureaucrats were even blurring the vision of mainstream America,” wrote Phares. “Hundreds of articles, books, panels, and shows played down the threat of jihad and its determination to engage in a ‘wholly and holy’ war against mainland America.”
But how and why was the academic community so wrong about jihadists before 2001?
Phares explains in his book that Bin Laden’s advantage and our unpreparedness, were the result of a jihadist penetration. The penetration began in part with Wahabi [one group of radical Muslims seeking to wage jihad] oil money that “targeted a number of nerve centers such as universities and community and religious organizations.” This funding, beginning in the 70s and continuing through the present day allowed Wahabists to blur the thinking of Americans, effectively blinding them to the threat of jihad.
http://www.futurejihad.com/index.php...d=19&Itemid=35
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4. Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism by Robert Pape
This is one of the books that informs Ron Paul's position on Jihad and the War on Terror and one of the books he recommended that Rudy Giuliani read.
Quote:
Dying to Win
Pape's book takes a flinty-eyed look at the data and presents us with inarguable conclusions that many readers will not like. (Witness the ideological hatchet job below, masquerading as a reader review.) If you can't make yourself believe that US foreign policy (and the foreign policies of other powerful democracies) might somehow be a contributing factor in the proliferation of suicide bombing campaigns we are witnessing today, then don't bother reading this book. If you have to let yourself believe that Islam is the source of most suicide bombing in the world, even if the data shows that it isn't, then don't waste your time reading this book. But if you're tired of not understanding why hundreds of billions of dollars of military hardware, intelligence infrastructure and foreign aid, and hundreds of thousands of US soldiers posted overseas, seems only to buy us more suicide bombers, then perhaps you'd be interested in a fresh idea why this is the case. You may not like Pape's conclusions. You may not be happy about them. But you can't deny that they are based on the data, and that his analysis of the data is manifestly non-ideological in the best sense of that term. If we are going to win the war on terrorism, we had better be prepared to stop thinking ideologically from time to time, and take a look at the facts.
http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Win-Stra.../dp/1400063175
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A postscript in support of these books: Reading for pleasure presupposes a reasonably good grasp of the issues that are being decided in our time. I believe it would be terribly irresponsible or fanciful to spend our time reading for pleasure until we have achieved a sound understanding of the scourge that threatens WWIII. To ignore that would be like Emperor Nero's fiddling while Rome burned or dancing a waltz in the Titanic's ballroom while the great ship was sinking, IMHO.
Last edited by bhkad; 10-23-2007 at 10:53 PM.
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