The Crisis of Islam - Holy War, Unholy Terror by Lewis - Book Report/Review Example

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War, Unholy Terror Insert History Introduction The Crisis of Islam: Holy War, Unholy Terror book was publishedin the year 2004 by the Random House Publishing Group. In this book, the author tries to examine the historical basis of the resentments that govern the world of Islam presently and that are increasingly linked to acts of terrorism all over the world. The author scrutinises the religious perspective in the originality of political Islam and highlights on the formation and the rise of Islamic militants in Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia and he also examines the effects of drastic Saudi oil money on the rest of the world of Islam. The Crisis of the religion has varied broadly over about thirteen centuries of history. The Crisis, in particular, indicates the significant events that took place in the twentieth century and led up to the aggressive confrontation that exists presently. The author of the book, Bernard Lewis was born on the 31st of May 1916 and he is a British- American historian who specializes in oriental studies. Lewis is well known as a political commentator and also as a public intellectual and at the same time, he is a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University. His expertise is directed towards the history of Islam religion and the interactions that exist between Islam and the West. Additionally, he is also noted for his academic circles and his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire. Bernard also served as a British Army soldier in the Royal Armored Corps and also the intelligence corps at the period of World War II before he was seconded to the office of foreign affairs. Lewis went back to school at the University of London where he was appointed the chairman in the near and Middle Eastern history after the end of the Second World War. Policymakers with the administration of Bush included have frequently sought the pieces of advice that were given by the scholar. He is well known for the views that he gave concerning the Armenian Genocide. In his arguments, the acknowledged that massacres done against the Armenians occurred but at the same time, he does not believe that it qualifies to be termed as genocide. Another achievement is that, Bernard graduated from the school of oriental studies at the London University with a degree in Bachelor of arts degree in history having specialized in the near and middle east history. He obtained a History of Islam Ph.D. some three years later from the same institution. The author also studied law in a quest to becoming a solicitor but later went back and studied the history of Middle East. Lewis undertook his postgraduate studies at the University of Paris and returned to SOAS in the year 1938 to work as an assistant lecturer in Islamic history. At the age of 57, he was offered a position at Princeton university and institute of advanced study with the terms of teaching for a single semester each year giving him more time to focus on his research than he previously did. The arrival of Lewis at Princeton University marked the start of the most productive period linked to his career in research with which he published several books and articles using the materials that he had accumulated earlier. He was pioneer member of the Middle East studies association of northern America in 1966 but he later broke from the group in 2007 to form a rival group known as the Association for the study of Middle East and Africa. His foundation was generally established as an academic society that was mostly dedicated to the promotion of high research standards and the teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies with all the other related study fields and he was the chairperson of his foundation. Lewis was selected by the national endowment for the humanities to the Jefferson Lecture, which is the highest honor for achievement in humanities offered by the US federal government. He gave a lecture on the title Western civilization: a view from the east and it got revision and reprinting in the Atlantic monthly reviews with the title, the roots of Muslim rage. The qualifications and the experience that the author possesses are quite convincing that he is fully qualified to write and make contributions to the content of the book effectively. The reason to this is that, throughout his school time, the author specialized in learning and getting the right information about the Middle East and Africa that included all the knowledge that related to Islam as a religion. Examination of the thesis The thesis statement simply means that, the successors of Muhammad had declared and also engaged in an imperialistic jihad against most parts of the world from the 7th century. In his statement, the author goes ahead and mentions the al Qaeda group together with its leader Osama Bin Laden and he disapproves the operations that the group had already carried out. The author indicates that, most of the Muslim armies defeated and overthrew the ancient Persia Empire and later adopted and absorbed all its territories making them threaten central Asia and some parts of India referring to them as they in the thesis. During this period, a larger part of the Byzantine Empire was subjugated and the provinces that were occupied by Christians like Syria, Egypt, Palestine and North Africa were completely absorbed. Members of the conquered provinces were then forced and were converted to be Muslims and Arabized. These provinces ended up serving as the basis for making further invasions of Europe that led to the conquest of Spain and Portugal and a greater part of southern Italy. 1The author finalizes with chapter nine of his book by giving sentiments of hope that he personally and other Islamic fundamentalists do not in any way succeed in their purpose otherwise dull future for the Muslims and the world generally. Connection to the central thesis The passage is related to the central thesis of the book because the author talks about Islam and its related effects on the whole world based on his knowledge and experience about the region. The book also talks about the major theme of the study by indicating the exact elements of the thesis specifically. The history of hostility towards the West has been presented to be long and with lots of variations in the Islamic world, although its concentration is new to America as well as the cult of the suicide bombers Muslims. In this thesis, Bernard Lewis brilliantly tries to unravel the crosscurrents of the history of Middle Eastern history from the common understanding of its manipulators. The author helps us to understand clearly the main reasons for the increment of the authoritarian disapproval of modernity by the majority of the Muslim nations as a favor of the return to a sacred past. The book is crucial to be read by any scholar who has the urge of knowing who Osama Bin Laden is used to represent and the main reason his message resonates broadly in the world of Islam. The thesis is connected to the terrorist event that was engineered by a terror group that has the Islamic background. Besides, in some countries of the world of Arabs, there exists an always-refreshing evidence of self-examination on what deviated on that fateful day. To try to understand the primary cause of what transpired, Lewis starts by explaining to us how the Islamic nations have lost their dominance and their leadership within a very short period. Examination of the audience targeted The professional background of the author clearly shows that he is writing to communicate to general readers and other professional scholars due to his clarity in the presentation of ideas and his mastery in using English language. The reader oughts not to possess any knowledge about the material because it is well explained and it presents its points in a way that the reader will not struggle while trying to understand the contents of it. The language used is simple and the flow of the book is excellent making it easy to go through its contents without any guidance. Again, the style used by the author to present his ideas in the book makes the book more efficient to the targeted audience. The style and the organization of the work is made in such a way that makes reading the book to be interesting to the scholars who get their hands over the book trying to know more about the history of the region being talked about in the book. The focus of the book makes sense to me and I think the same case applies to all the readers who pass through what has been written in the book. The various themes that the author presents makes it easy to understand the points in each and every section to be understood with ease and without any strain. The content of the book, as contextualized by the author, plays an important role in making me understand what happened through history and what exactly happened at some particular points that are highlighted in the book. The book starts by defining the meaning of Islam and the author goes ahead to explain the house of war where he quotes the Quran and goes ahead to explain Jihad by explaining its two meanings. 2 The author then explains the context of crusaders and imperialists in the third chapter of the book where he talks more about the crusaders in the Middle East countries and how they were not taken seriously as opposed to the case of Osama Bin Laden. The fourth chapter talks about discovering America followed by chapter five that talks about Satan and the Soviets and explains the historical perception of the Islamic world towards the West. Chapter six talks about 3Double standards with chapter seven talking about the failure of modernity. Chapter eight of Lewis book talks about the marriage of Saudi power and Wahabi teaching where he scrutinizes the impacts of the rejection of modernity that has led to the rise of a number of various historical movements. The last book chapter highlights the rise of terrorism and how the word has been associated with Islam as a religion in the world today. Conclusion After going through the book successfully and internalizing the content in it, there is enough evidence that the book is interesting. The stories given are quite interesting and easy to understand keeping the reader to be motivated to continue reading and seeking to know what they do not know from the book. The use of simple English in writing the book has also made it be interesting as there is no use of complicated grammar that discourages most of the readers. During my reading, I enjoyed the content of the book. The story flow in each chapter and the examples used made me to enjoy really the reading as I was almost getting everything that I was reading. Again, the experience and knowledge that the author has about the history of Islam and the compilation of different historical facts makes the book be more enjoyable. For any reader who is interested in improving his or her knowledge of history, this is the right book to read. The book contains rich materials that highlight in the history of Islam and the notions that are related to the religion. If understood well, then the content of the book will with no doubt improve the knowledge of history to the reader Bibliography Lewis, Bernard. 2003. The Crisis Of Islam. New York: Modern Library. Read More