Keeping up with changes in the debate within Islam requires constant reading from the moderate and rational authors to the more extreme. U.S. military planners must read a variety of books on Islam to understand not only moderate allies crucial to the war on terrorism but Islamist racialist adversaries as well. Although reading about the basics of Islamic practice (prayers, alms and fasting) is a good first step is not enough for American forces confronting enemies who have deformed interpretations of Islam. This review essay will highlight two books designed to enhance your thinking about what President Bush means when he says Islamist radicals have hijacked a great religion. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Law Professor Khalid Abou El Fadl has written The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from Extremists (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 290 pages, 2006). The author attacks Islamist radicals using Islamic law and history to argue that they have eroded Islam's moral tradition. His book is also an appeal for Muslims to critically engage their tradition and reclaim Islam as a humanistic force for positive change in the world.
The book opens by classifying the Islamic ideological threat, and he characterizes the ideological clash within Islam as being between puritans and moderates. Abou El Fadl derives the term moderate from Islamic texts, the Prophet Muhammad when faced who two extremes reportedly preferred the moderate path. But he characterizes Islamist radicals as puritans, which I disagree. Puritans may have resonance among western academics but the label is unsuited to public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East. Puritan has a radical yet noble quality that is not appropriate for thugs and assassins. I do agree with Abou El Fadl with the Islamic law term hiraba (literally waging war against society) is much better than labeling them jihadist (a badge of honor among militants). But this is exactly the reason why the book should be read, because it stimulates discourse.
The book continues to describe medieval Muslim jurists who advocated that the state has a responsibility of protecting Islam. Serious 21st century Islamic issues are not a fixation on death, suicide, murder and mayhem but the difference between protecting versus representing faith? What is the role of Shariah (Islamic Law) in a modern state? Do fuqaha (religious jurists) have a role in modern judicial systems? What is the relationship between God, legislative sovereignty and human rights in societies with a Muslim character? Note these complex questions will not be resolved or discussed in radical or politicized madrassas nor will it be resolved through the tactics of Bin Laden.
Another interesting discussion is the problem of people with very limited education becoming self-proclaimed experts in Islamic law. This has led to an unprecedented deterioration in the quality of Islamic learning and debate. There are also pages that reveal the placing Islamic tradition at the service of political objectives. This began with the Kharijites in the seventh century, re-emerged with Ibn Taymiyah in the thirteenth century and today's modern manifestation is the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The obsession with Palestine has excluded discussion on other important aspects of Islamic reform. It has become a convenient form of escapism from complex problems of the 21st century.
This book is also extremely critical of Muhammad Bin Abdul Wahab, the cleric who in 1744 founded Wahabism and who ignored juristic predecessors except for the explosive and highly damaging Ibn Taymiyah (died 1328). The author highlights how Abdul Wahab's brother Suleiman, criticized the path of takfir (declaring Muslims and non-Muslims apostates) is counter to Islamic law and he cited over 50 sayings of Prophet Muhammad on the sins of condemning fellow Muslims. Readers will also explore the merging of Wahabism and Salafi ideologies in the 1970s to create a potent mixture of militant ideologues like Shukri Mustafa and Abdel-Salam Faraj to name a few. The end of the book covers such topics as jihad and ends with a call for a counter-jihad based on intellectual activism. One may disagree with the author on many points but he lays his argument out well and is a basis to being a debate and to learn how to ideologically counter Islamist militancy ideologically using Islamic precedence, history and texts.
Barry Rubin is a staple of modern Middle East studies and is the author of numerous books on the region. He is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Herzliya, Israel. His latest entitled Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2006) discusses the narrow margin of Arab liberals caught between despotism and Islamic militants. The book begins with the 1992 murder of Farag Foda, a highly effective debater of radical preachers, who that same year debated the cleric Muhammad Al-Ghazali at the Cairo book fair. Fouda took the side of secularism and the cleric predictably his concept of an Islamist state. His effective debate was silenced by AK-47 rounds discharged by a fish seller, who was himself convicted. What sums up a major problem in the current Middle East is the trial, where the cleric Al-Ghazali testified that the killing of Fouda was a proper punishment for an apostate. What is outrageous was his testimony was backed by a group of scholars from Egypt's Al-Azhar University, perhaps the most prestigious center of Islamic learning. Fouda killer declared he could now die with a clear conscience.
Rubin argues that militant violence silences Arab liberals and pro-democracy groups, with the only winners being despotic rulers and the region's dictators. A true danger is the political expression has been polarized between the regime and the mosque leaving no room for other political options and party politics. You will delve into the world of Egyptians Saad-el-Din Ibrahim or play write Ali Salem to the Moroccan Bu-Said, and put faces to the voices of rational yet suppressed Arab political discourse and from persons who want democracy. Read Rubin's book and gain insight to the political currents of the Middle East.
Editor's Note: LCDR Aboul-Enein is currently stationed in Washington DC as a Counter-Terrorism Analyst. He previously served as Director for North Africa and Egypt as well as Advisor on Islamist Militancy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2002-2006. He is a fully qualified Middle East Foreign Area Officer and prolific writer of reviews and essays on the Middle East and Islamist Radicalism.