Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam ( short book review )
Cuthbert Thislethwaite
Abdiel wrote:
. . .
> Thanks for the reference. Let me know how it turns out...unfortunately
> my nighttable is full just now, but I'd be keen to check it out.
Re: Jihad: The Political Trail of Political Islam
Gilles Keppel
Well, at one point, I thought to write a full review, but by the time I
had reached the end, Keppel's thesis seemed to lack plausibility. It
seems very premature to proclaim the end of political islam, since islam
is so inherently political. What else would one expect of a religion
which intentionally does not distinguish between church and state -- it
*must* be political. What remains to be resolved is whether that
dynamic will be benign and productive, or imperialistic and menacing,
thereby causing others to feel the need to destroy it in self-defense.
That being said, Keppel has produced a superb review of political islam,
and of intellectual islam, insofar as it pertains to the political,
covering the period from independence after WWII, down to last year.
The book is organized chronologically, and sub-organized by regions and
countries, which is a natural and appealing format for a history fan
like me. Since Jihad also covers the period of my lifetime almost
exactly ( e.g., Qutb visited America from 1948 to 1950, and I was born
in 1949 ), it served as an excellent review of events through which I
lived and clearly remember.
For me, the greatest significance of the oil embargo was that, as a
young grad student, I felt obliged to spend my time waiting in long gas
lines to fill my Father's Cadillac, specifically so that he would not
need to. Sitting in the long lines, there was plenty of time to develop
a considerable antipathy towards the perpetrators of the embargo.
Keppel makes much more of the matter: he argues that the huge ( and in
my opinion, artificial ) spike in the price of oil provided the Saudis
with the funds they needed to crank up their evil scheme to export
Wahabbism beyond their wildest dreams. They had initiated the project
in 1962, by establishing the Moslem World League, but the windfall from
the embargo enabled them to spread their propaganda far and wide.
I knew little about the intellectual underpinnings of modern islamism,
and Keppel provided a workable introduction to Qutb, Azzam, Mawdudi,
Banna, and others, whose writings served to motivate the islamists of
the end of the twentieth century.
But for Keppel, the definitive factor in the implementation of the
islamic state is the conjunction of several specific social groups: the
discontented urban youths ( "hittistes," or "those who lean against the
walls," in Algeria ), the middle classes, which includes both
shopkeepers and educated professionals, both of which are "devout",
radical religious intellectuals and the clerics. Only Khomeini has
achieved this. He was lying to his countrymen, but the lies did not
become apparent until it was too late. Islamic insurrections in other
countries has failed due to the failure of the visionaries to being
enough of the above groups together to create a consensus.
At the end, important support for islamism has been squandered by the
insurgents, who alienated one group after another with their disgusting
violence: they drive away important groups which they need to attract.
Although Keppel's book is well worth reading for the historical review
and doctrinal development which he presents, he did not prove his
thesis, at least not to me. Fundamentalist Islamism does not at all
appear to me to be a spent force, as the blood is still flowing, from
Cote d'Ivoire to Manilla, from Jamma and Kashmir to Sudan, and as
moslems in Western countries, successfully propagandized by
Wahabbi-peddling Saudis, frequently appear to me to be seething
malcontents.
Cuthbert Thislethwaite
. . .
> Thanks for the reference. Let me know how it turns out...unfortunately
> my nighttable is full just now, but I'd be keen to check it out.
Re: Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
Gilles Keppel
I don't think it's over at all.