» » The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity

Download The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity fb2

by Tariq Ali

Tariq_Ali Politics_and_Government English
  • ISBN: 1859846793
  • Category: Politics
  • Author: Tariq Ali
  • Subcategory: Politics & Government
  • Other formats: lrf azw rtf mobi
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Verso; First Edition edition (April 17, 2002)
  • Pages: 344 pages
  • FB2 size: 1520 kb
  • EPUB size: 1198 kb
  • Rating: 4.7
  • Votes: 169
Download The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity fb2
Download FB2 Download EPUB

In The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Tariq Ali puts the events of September 11 into sweeping historical perspective.

In The Clash of Fundamentalisms, Tariq Ali puts the events of September 11 into sweeping historical perspective. As we have come to expect from him, he is lucid, eloquent, literary, and painfully honest, as he dissects both Islamic and Western fundamentalism. Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: ‘Allah’s revenge,’ ‘God is on Our Side’ and ‘God Bless America. The visible violence of September 11 was the response to the invisible violence that has been inflicted on countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine and Chechnya.

The Clash of Fundamentalisms is well worth reading. In this timely and important book, Tariq Ali puts the events of September 11 into sweeping historical perspective. it shows that the harshest critics of fundamentalism are often exponents of a rival fundamentalism. John Gray, Independent. It will not open doors at the White House because it makes for uncomfortable reading. a wide-ranging and powerfully argued critique, that.

Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker

Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than a dozen books on world history and politics-including Pirates of the Caribbean, Bush in Babylon, The Clash of Fundamentalisms and The Obama Syndrome-as well as five novels in his Islam Quintet series and scripts for the stage and screen.

Includes bibliographical references and index. Part I: Mullahs and heretics. An atheist childhood - The origins of Islam - The empire of the world - Jerusalem, Jerusalem - Ottomanism - The joys of heresy - Women versus the eternal masculine - Part II: One hundred years of servitude. A spring memory - The roots of Wahhabism - The kingdom of corruption - Zionism, the first oil war, resistance - Marginal notes on the chapter of defeats - The anti-imperialism of fools - An ocean of terror - Part III: The nuclear wastelands of South Asia.

The Clash of Fundamentalisms book. So speaks Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, in an excerpt from an interview in Tariq Ali's 2003 book 'The Clash of Fundamentalisms'. It beholds us to understand that in which we are politically engaged, whether it is the neo-liberal empire that "People must broaden their understanding and accept the fact that politics, not political parties, is tied in with anything and everything that is related to power.

Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific . The ‘war against terror’ is a clash of fundamentalisms, religious versus imperial

Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: ‘Allah’s revenge’, ‘God is on Our side’, ‘God Bless America’. The ‘war against terror’ is a clash of fundamentalisms, religious versus imperial. Each is honored by time-honored features – a shameless use of disproportional military power by one and a carefully targeted fanaticism by its Other. The two forces are hardly equal

The Clash of Fundamentalisms. Crusades, Jihads and Modernity.

The Clash of Fundamentalisms. Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: 'Allah's revenge,' 'God is on Our Side' and 'God Bless America.

oceedings{Ali2002TheCO, title {The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and .

oceedings{Ali2002TheCO, title {The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity}, author {Tariq Z Ali}, year {2002} }. Tariq Z Al.

Tariq Ali's book, The Clash of Fundamentalisms, is necessary reading for everyone. For radicals it provides an excellent history of . imperial exploits and of ideological and political conflict in the Middle East and Central and South Asia. Tariq Ali puts forth a history of Islamic fundamentalism, from Muhammad onward, through the emergence of Wahhabism (Saudi Arabia's state religion, once Afghanistan's) from its inspirer Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab in the 18th century under Ottoman rule, through the present. In between, Ali sandwiches a discussion of Islamic heresy, including the Islamic world's most prominent medieval intellectuals.

The inviolability of the American mainland, breached on 9/11/2001 for the first time since 1812, led to extravagant proclamations by the pundits. It was a sudden menace confronting the twenty-first century, an event of unprecedented dimensions, a new world-historical turning point.Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: ‘Allah’s revenge’, ‘God is on Our side’, ‘God Bless America’. The ‘war against terror’ is a clash of fundamentalisms, religious versus imperial. Each is honored by time-honored features – a shameless use of disproportional military power by one and a carefully targeted fanaticism by its Other. The two forces are hardly equal. One is a product of despair, the other is an empire, whose ability to go to war is a chilling reminder of its place in the world. Contemporary politics is conducted and presented in the elitist style of intelligence agencies: disinformation, false information, exaggeration of enemy strength and capability, explanation of a TV image with a brazen lie and censorship. The aim is to delude and disarm the citizenry. Everything is either over-simplified or reduced to a wearisome incomprehensibility.This wide-ranging book blends history, literature, politics and autobiography to challenge the conformist culture of our times. Ali argues that many of the values proclaimed by the Enlightenment retain their relevance, while portrayals of the American Empire as a new emancipatory project are fatally misguided.
Reviews about The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (7):
Bad Sunny
I would make this the first book taught in every history class. It is certainly the most informative book that I've read this year; and I read a lot of them. It was most interesting reading the Library Journal review above as anything that provokes that kind of reaction would make me want to read it. It's about time that we wake up to what is really going on with our country and this is an excellent place to start. Mr Ali is an engaging writer and the pages just flew by. I'm about 10 pages from the end and I'm going to read it again(and me with a stack of "to be read" books on my desk, ah, well). there is much to learn from this book.Inquiring minds will love it reactionaries- not so much.
Mysterious Wrench
I confess I began this wonderful book about this time last year. Why, you have every right to ask, did I take over a year to complete a relatively small book and the answer lies in the fact that I feel Mr. Ali's book is several books in one and therefore you can read one part as complete unto itself.
The topics that Ali explores are diverse but all of immense importance to America as she tries to feel her way in a world that is hostile to her much valued beliefs. Everybody in the world knows that America is hell-bent on building the first world empire but Ali's book is the best indication that goal, if it happens, will be more costly than the Washington conservatives think it will be.
If there are any of those conservatives who would like an insight into the movements of the contemporary world, I suggest that they grasp the contents of chapter 19, if little else in Ali's book, because no more need be read to have an insight into the ways of our modern world.
Further, chapter 16 on his country-Pakistan-will not only illuminate an area of the world that for many decion-makers is still a blank-a blank whose mysteriousness will, and perhaps already has, lead to involvement mistakes that will haunt this new empire for many years to comme.
As one commentator said-this book is a modern political classic that should be read by all who think to captain the ship of this empire.
Nidora
Tariq Ali along with Robert Fisk are the two writers on " Middle Eastern Politics " that have lifted " The Mist"on what has become an ever confusing Real Politik
Effecting our understanding of where forces such as Alqueda and ISIS have been sporn.
Wnex
Great book. I bought it a long time ago but I lost. I told my husband about it and wanted him to read.
Molotok
just one word for this book : marvelous.
anyone wanting to get a historical handle on the relation between the west and the middle east has to read this book end to end.
Tekasa
There were a number of very good historical pieces of information along with a very good bibliography. The book helps fill gaps in education that we do not always get through our current media.
Saintrius
Tariq Ali's writing is powerfully persuasive. This book contains fascinating insights and interpretations of the Western-Middle East relations of the last century. No political opinion is ever unbiased, and the reader should take Ali's decidedly leftist views into account when perusing this book, but the author's judgments are very fair and his criticism equally distributed. Ali attributes warfare and imperialism to economic self-interest, and I find his arguments very convincing. A great read and a fascinating perspective, but be sure to pick up other views as well.
Had I read the scathing editorial review of James R. Holmes (posted on this site) I would not have bought or read this extremely valuable book. Mr. Holmes must after all be a person of some standing to occupy a position of such editorial eminence. I bought the book because excerpts of it had been floating round in cyberspace. What caught my attention was the fact that this was a very well informed Muslim writing freely, courageously and lucidly about Islamic fundamentalism. The author thus belongs to an extremely rare species of human beings and it is tragic that his significant contribution to our understanding of September 11, is dismissed so high handedly by Mr. Holmes. From his remarks Mr. Holmes seems to understand terrorism simply as a thing-in-itself totally disconnected from the aspirations, fears and fantasies of the people perpetuating such acts. If we are to understand such people we need to have an understanding of their belief systems and the place they occupy in their religio-political interpretations of history. This Tariq Ali attempts to do. To give us some sense of perspective, the author compresses an enormous amount of history into a few short pages. This is not meant to be a scholarly historical work but more a thumbnail sketch of the relevant history that most of us are at best only dimly aware of. I don't see how he or anyone can write about these matters without such a historical sketch and the demand that such a work have an extensive bibliography is uncalled for. One may not share some of the opinions of the author, but that does not for a moment detract from his penetrating insights into the people he was raised amongst (Muslim South Asian) or those that educated him (British-European). This is a rare individual with a wide perspective vehemently criticizing all forms of fundamentalism. If we seek to gag him we must be careful that we do not do so because he is attacking some very fundamental sacrosanct views in ourselves.

Related to The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity fb2 books: