Offence: The Muslim Case (Manifestos for the Twenty-first Century) [Hardcover]

"Offence: The Muslim case" by Kamila Shamsie, English (2009), Seagull Books, 82 pages (hardback but small paperback size). Chapter titles: (1) A Matter between Muslims; (2) The Pakistan Story; (3) A War of Words; (4) Creating the National Myth; (5) Militant Secularism; (6) Military Islam; (7) How the USA Became the Great Other. The author is a Muslim female novelist who was raised in Pakistan but lives in London, UK. The author argues that the `Clash of Civilizations' between the `Christian' West and the Islamic East is in reality less of a battle between these two landmasses than it is a battle between `secular'-leaning Muslims and the stifling `Fundamentalist' Muslims. The author identifies the latter as the `Violently Offended Muslim' who stresses `violent punishment over opportunities for repentance' (p. 13) versus `secular' Muslims who really aren't all that `fervent' in accepting extremist Islam. She argues that as there are several different `schools of Islam', therefore, the Muslim community (umma) is more divided than they are united. She argues that the current Militant Islamist movement originated in 1857 during the Indian Mutiny (18) - when both Hindus and Muslims revolted against British rule. The author takes a couple of pages to discuss the breakaway (partition) of Muslim Pakistan from Hindu India in 1947. Later, the author noted, the `hard liners' (Islamic fundamentalists) began to Islamicate Pakistan, in part by attempting to have the government declare the Ahmadi sect to be non-Muslim. The author argues that the 1970s Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto versus the Bengali nationalist movement resulted in more splitting of the Muslim people, which worked in favor of the fundamentalists. This Islamic `splitting' was a defining moment in the history of Islam and Offence in Pakistan when Bhutto succeeded in having the Ahmandis to be declared non-Muslim. But he was soon ousted, imprisoned and hanged by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, who imposed even more draconian Islam upon Pakistan. Then in 1979 the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, then the U.S. requested Pakistan to support the anti-Soviet mujahadeen , then Rushdie's anti-Islamic Satanic Verses book was published in early 1989 only to be burned in Pakistan, then the rise of Osama bin Laden developed from the pro-Islamic movement which led to his power of being able to implement his 9/11 attack. Then the author bashed the U.S. for siding with India in its opposition to Pakistan developing the nuclear Islamic Bomb. The author argues that if the Pakistan government since its establishment could have relieved poverty -- especially after the very destructive 2006 earthquake when the government provided inept relief to the injured -- the Wahabbi fundamentalists would not have gained so much support. So, Islam itself is not to be blamed, just its fervent adherents who took advantage of a 50-year-old inept Pakistani government. But the author cannot explain Osama bin Laden's hatred (for this, one needs to read "The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion").