Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East

by Fred Halliday (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2003

  $31.87

  This volume sets out to reject anti-Islamic views of a future dominated by the conflict between Islam and the West . It has been revised to encompass the events of 11 September 2001, spiralling violence in the Middle East and President George Bush's proposed identification of an axis of evil . Considering the sources of Islamic militancy and analyzing the confrontational rhetoric of both Islamic and anti-Muslim demagogues, Halliday provides an alternative, critical, but cautious, reassessment. The Middle East, he argues, can be treated neither as a distinct nor as a unified region, but must be seen as a set of disparate societies, facing and reacting to the problems of economic development and political change.

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.25

  The collapse of communism, and the rise of militant Islamic movements in the Middle East, have raised the spectre of a future dominated by the conflict between Islam and the West . From theories such as Samuel Huntingdon's Clash of Civilizations to the anti-Western rhetoric of many Muslim militants themselves, this image of confrontation has come to be widely accepted. At the same time, the many issues afflicting the Middle East itself - from the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Gulf War, to the arguments on Salman Rushdie and human rights - are widely seen as reflecting the influence of Islam on politics and society of this region. Fred Halliday sets out to reject these interpretations. Considering the sources of Islamic militancy and analyzing the confrontational rhetoric of both Islamic and anti-Muslim demagogues, he provides an alternative, critical but cautious, reassessment. The Middle East, he argues, can be treated neither as a distinct nor as a unified region, but must be seen as a set of variant societies, facing, like much of the rest of the Third World, the problems of economic development and political change.