"This is Jihad?" - The Crisis of Understanding Islam
Here's a link to a series of seven audio tracks from a lecture Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller gave to a London audience on August 29th, 2005 — courtesy of Masud Khan's renowned website. The general topic of the lecture is the current crisis of understanding Islam within the Muslim Ummah. In this context, the Shaykh presents the origins of the Wahhabi movement and discusses the so-called "Salafi" Islam that unfortunately has become the default brand of Islam in many places today. Additionally, he touches upon the methodology of the so-called "Jihadi" movement and various related topics from tawassul (use of intermediaries to approach Allah) to suicide bombing.
Since I'm always on watch for good book recommendations, I took serious note of the fact that during the lecture two books were recommended by Shaykh Nuh for those wanting to learn more about what's going on in the world today. The first one he mentioned was Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam, by Jason Burke, which "has a lot of things right and not very many things wrong in it". Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, by Michael Scheuer (although initially published anonymously), is the next book Shaykh Nuh recommended "for everyone who wants to understand anything about the current situation." That's more than enough of an endorsement for me, so I plan to get hold of both these titles as soon as possible, insha'llah.
Based on all of this, I highly recommend that all interested parties (and if you're not interested, you should be) download (they're just over 35 MB total) and listen to (total running times is 1:25:24) all seven ([1][2][3][4][5][6][7]) of these very informative and highly relative tracks (which are in MP3 format).
Deen On...
Labels: Jihad, Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Terrorism
posted by @ 9:05 PM
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Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, by Michael Scheuer (although initially published anonymously), is the next book Shaykh Nuh recommended "for everyone who wants to understand anything about the current situation."
As-Salaamu 'alaikum,
I bought this book and was shocked by the ignorance displayed by the author. He clearly states that Osama bin Laden and his gang represent the mainstream of Islam, rather than a splinter group of a splinter group. He basically agrees with Pipes & co's assessment but disagrees only on what causes their dislike of the west. Nobody is safe when you have jahils like this in the "intelligence" service.
Wa 'alaykumu as-salam,
Yes, this is a rather obvious flaw of Mr. Scheuer, both in this book and in the interviews that I've seen him do. Once he said that one of the flaws of Islam is that it doesn't teach one to "turn the other cheek". So not only is he ignorant of the fact that it certainly does in some situations, although not when your country is being invaded. I couldn't help but wonder why he's not criticising the lack of the "turn the other cheek" ethic in U.S. foreign policy! These people are just so blind to their double-standards...
Anyway, Shaykh Nuh never endorsed the book in toto, since he's obviously keen enough to pick up on its flaws. What he actually mentioned that was good about Imperial Hubris is how the author demonstrates that these radical Jihadis, and many other Muslims as well, hate the U.S. not for its freedoms and democracy (as some morons allege), but strictly because of U.S. actions in the Middle East. Due to that, he made the bold step of pointing out that some of these policies are thus very counterproductive and recommended that they be changed. This certainly sets him apart from many other pundits and advisors, thus the book was somewhat of a breath of fresh air when compared to the usual paranoid neo-con babble. Not only that, but he's a well respected source that got a lot of attention. Even though the Bush Administration ignored him (no surprise there), I think Scheuer did win quite a few hearts and minds.
Mr. Scheuer was also quite fair in discussing what America has actually done in the Middle East for the past several decades -- and he didn't try to gloss over the rough spots or sugar coat it, so as far as that goes the book is good. But yes, you're right that the man is painfully ignorant of Islam. However, he spent much of his life only dealing with and hearing the rhetoric of radical wacko Muslims, so I blame them for his conclusion since they're the ones who told him, straight from the horses' mouth as it were, "This is what Islam is: fighting, bombing, killing, hatred, intolerance, etc."...
Perhaps Sh. Nuh recommended the book because it provides a corrective to Washington complacency. I'm reminded of Joseph Conrad's strictures on Colonalism--he may have been racist himself, but few people have refuted the rationale behind colonialism so devastatingly.
Not that my recommendation does (or should) be mentioned in the same breath as Sh. Nuh's but in this vein I'd recommend
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Life-Emerald-City-Inside/dp/1400044871
See this interview http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/151212 for a sense of its contents.
This book gives you the an equally damning and perhaps more shameful indictment of this administration's foreign policy, as it shows just how mind-bogglingly incompetent, corrupt and ideologically blinkered these cowboys have been. We're talking about cases like the one where a kid whose only previous professional experience was driving an ice cream truck being given a senior position inside the Ministry of the Interior because his politics he was a true-blue GOP stalwart and Bush supporter. It's stunning. This book documents how American foreign policy since 9/11 has been run by a mix of Keystone Cops and shockingly dogmatic (but paradoxically totally inconsistent) ideologues. This administration systematically left civil society and reconstruction professionals who weren't GOP stalwarts out in the cold and, get this, by some estimates most of the people they sent over to "rebuild" Iraq HAD NEVER HAD A PASSPORT ISSUED BEFORE.
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