Allen joins 9/11 to his long-standing interest in the
soldier/scholar adventurers of the British Raj and turns up some
interesting nuggets on Islamic fundamentalism.As early as the 12th
century, writes Allen (The Search for the Buddha, 2003, etc.),
radicals sought to turn Islam into a militantly unaccommodating
faith. Against the backdrop of the Mongol invasions of the Arab
world, a Syrian jurist named Ibn Taymiyya declared Muhammad wrong
to suggest-or so ecumenical clerics had determined-that jihad was
an internal struggle for purity as much as a war against enemies of
the faith. No, said Ibn Taymiyya: Jihad was literal, an
"unrelenting struggle against all who stood in the way of Islam's
destiny." That militant stance was revived in the 18th century in
the Arabian backcountry, when fundamentalist Bedouins preached fire
and brimstone. At first, the Wahhabi cult didn't make much of a
dent outside of the kingdom of the Saudis, rejected and condemned
as schismatic. Still, where Islam was felt to be threatened, as in
India, when brought under British rule, new adherents were easily
recruited, particularly among young males "from among the poor and
ignorant (preferably prepubescent orphans)" who could be easily
indoctrinated. So it was in the Raj, when cadres of Islamic
assassins set out to murder as many Britons as they could, retiring
to the schools called madrassas to read scripture in their off
hours. The same demographic category, writes Allen, fueled the
Taliban, which emerged "seemingly from nowhere" in 1994 to seize
power in Afghanistan, soon to be allied with al-Qaeda. Both
movements grew from the same fundamentalist roots, the author
asserts, adding that others will follow unless grievances such as
the lack of education and opportunity for young Muslims-to say
nothing of the lack of a Palestinian state-are neutralized.This
narrative has a grafted-on feel, but it is still of use to those
seeking to understand the origins and growth of Islamic extremism.
(Kirkus Reviews)
What are the roots of today's militant fundamentalism in the Muslim
world? In this insightful and wide-ranging history, Charles Allen
finds an answer in an eighteenth-century reform movement of
Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers-the Wahhabi-who sought
the restoration of Islamic purity and declared violent jihad on all
who opposed them. The Wahhabi teaching spread rapidly-first
throughout the Arabian Peninsula, then to the Indian subcontinent,
where a more militant expression of Wahhabism flourished. The ranks
of today's Taliban and al-Qaeda are filled with young men trained
in Wahhabi theology. God's Terrorists sheds much-needed light on
the origins of modern terrorism and shows how this dangerous
ideology lives on today.
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