I was loaned a copy of this book by my friend Adibudeen. It is a first-person account of an American Muslim, Aukai Collins, who after converting to Islam, then went overseas on several occasions to take part in Jihad. He describes the harsh realities of war - perhaps the most disturbing being the opportunists who run mafia-style operations in and around the war-torn countries where the so-called Jihad is taking place. But he also throws us an additional curve when he makes clear his distinction between Jihad and terrorism and decides to cooperate with the U.S. federal government to inform on terrorists. His frustration in this case is the result of the US governments blind eye to his inside connections - falling short of benefitting from his help due to bureaucracy and then adding insult to injury by trying to convince him that the real terrorist threat lies in the mosque. This leads me to the most pointed part of the book: Collins criticism of the people in the mosques who do not do enough (in his view) to support Jihad. All of it thrown together goes a long way to challenge our assumptions about Jihad overseas, the US governments ideas about terrorism, and the attitude of the average American Muslim toward Jihad.
MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION IN ISLAM Author : Dr. Muhammad Al Buraey
Reviewer: Biju Abdul Qadir
Publisher: IQRA Publications, India
In one sense, Modernism is a nihilistic force which seeks to destroy tradition, to neutralize the power of religious ideals to influence life, to set man free to seek inspiration for his deeds from his own natural self, i.e., his personal or communal complexus of instincts, whims, passions and wishes; or finally to deny all need by the processes of life – the personal, the mental, the social, the economic, the scientific – for guidance by anything a priori, or external to themselves. In that sense, Modernism is a name for chaos and nihilism. Obviously, in that sense, it is the antithesis of Islam. But in its constructive sense, i.e., as a force for achieving a beneficient usufruct of nature under the moral law; as an attitude of a mind that is always critical of all information but equally open to the new evidence which life and existence present; as committed to concern with the totality of humankind and the wholeness of human life rather than a segment of it, Modernism is Islam as much as Islam is Tawhid’ – al Shaheed Ismail Raji al Faruqi.
By Bernard Lewis
The Modern Library
$19.95
183 PP.
Reviewed By Khalil Abdel Alim
There is much confusion and lack of real knowledge about Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world in general. That confusion is not confined to Non Muslims in the West. Many Muslims, ironically, are equally confused and ignorant of the realty of Islam and its true history - both religious and secular.
One year after the tragic catastrophe of 9-11, I found the rage and hatred stirred amongst the general American public against Islam and Muslims. I was reminded of this book in part because of what I witnessed in the way of people resorting to what I consider "anti-American" behaviors of bigotry and racism.
By Gore Vidal
Thunder Mouth Press/Nations Books
PP. 197
$11.95
Reviewed By Khalil Abdel Alim
Gore Vidal is a modern iconoclast, a contemporary Cassandra. He strips away the illusions that most Americans hold about the purity of our political system and government. He documents the debacle of the 2000 presidential election and the power grab executed by the Bush cabal. He describes it as, "The current Junta in charge of our affairs, one not legally elected, but put in charge of us by the Supreme Court in the interest of the oil and gas and defense lobbies..." In his opinion, the American government is not only hated by foreign nations with whose lives America has interfered, but by its own citizens whose lives it has also interfered with.
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