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Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East (Paperback)

by Fred Halliday (Author) "The chapters that follow are part of the long process of reflection on the contemporary Middle East and on the various ways of thinking about..." (more)

3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 255 pages
Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd (31 Dec 1995)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1850439591
ISBN-13: 978-1850439592
Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 577,294 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

The collapse of communism, and the rise of militant Islamic movements in the Middle East, have raised the spectre of a future dominated by the conflict between "Islam" and "the West". From theories such as Samuel Huntingdon's "Clash of Civilizations" to the anti-Western rhetoric of many Muslim militants themselves, this image of confrontation has come to be widely accepted. At the same time, the many issues afflicting the Middle East itself - from the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Gulf War, to the arguments on Salman Rushdie and human rights - are widely seen as reflecting the influence of Islam on politics and society of this region. Fred Halliday sets out to reject these interpretations. Considering the sources of Islamic militancy and analyzing the confrontational rhetoric of both Islamic and anti-Muslim demagogues, he provides an alternative, critical but cautious, reassessment. The Middle East, he argues, can be treated neither as a distinct nor as a unified region, but must be seen as a set of variant societies, facing, like much of the rest of the Third World, the problems of economic development and political change.

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The chapters that follow are part of the long process of reflection on the contemporary Middle East and on the various ways of thinking about and analysing that region. Read the first page

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Religion, Politics and Experts in the Middle East, 8 Jun 2007

By	The Istor (Damascus, Syria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East (Paperback)

This book was among the essential readings for my course of World History, and frankly I found the chapter about Iran the part worth reading(Khomeini's reign of terror etc) still the author's basic thesis is a flawed one when it comes to the question whether Islam and democracy are incompatible, as he spuriously argues that democracy is possible only with secularism. The ironic thing is that while he says Islamism is a form of nationalism(which of course just like any other form of nationalism is constructed through what have been selected, written, pictured, popularized and repressed by its architects i.e. Mawdudi, Khomeini and Qutb) the issue is that when he speaks about the supposed incompatibility of Islam and democracy, he tends to forget that just as Islamism is constructed ideology, so it is not impossible to reconstruct and reinterpret Islam to fit into the democracy realm. Take the fatwas of Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq as an excellent example of effort.

Another place that I am at odd with Halliday is his portrait of the Gulf War just one kind of a `just war", I was not against pushing Saddam out of Kuwait, nor had the slightest illusion that sanctions will make him back off, but my issue is the belligerent and morally bank corrupt policy of George Bush the father, that favoured and to a great extend helped the dictator to stay in power in the aftermath of the war for another decade. We might have had totally a different situation in Iraq altogether, given that the fact that all the neighboring countries were in favour of removing him from power and the possibility of using the defeated Iraq as a buffer zone, as it has been since 2003, would have been much less likely.

I think that there are better works in the market that shed the light on the resurgent of political Islam. I would particularly recommend Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work by an intelligent writer, 12 Aug 2006

By	1Lit.co.uk Inc. - See all my reviews

This collection of previously published essays by one of Britain's most original thinkers on the Middle East covers a wide range of topics, from the Iranian revolution to human rights in Islam. One of the best chapters deals with Orientalism and its critics, in which Halliday intelligently tackles both sides of this rather tiresome debate. Throughout, he upholds a belief in the value of approaching the Middle East with the normal standards of social science in mind; he treats it not as some exotic, unchanging terrain, but as a complex region that can be best understood by asking the right questions and looking hard enough for evidence. A breath of fresh air.

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