| Review of: | Islam and Violence in the Modern Era by Beverley Milton-Edwards |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Jeffrey Haynes |
| Reviewed in: | Nations and Nationalism |
| Date accepted online: | 02/11/2007 |
| Published in print: | Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages 341-367 |
Book Reviews
The 11 September 2001 ('9/11') attacks on the United States were a key event in the debate about the role of religion in international conflict, especially in the way that they focused attention on al-Qaeda's international religious terrorism and led to the subsequent 'war on terror'. For some scholars, analysts and policy makers - especially but not exclusively in the United States - 9/11 marked the practical onset of Samuel Huntington's 'clash of civilisations' between the 'Christian' West and the Islamic world. Others, such as Olivier Roy and Gilles Kepel, contend however that 9/11 was
Milton-Edwards wants to put the record straight in this regard. She starts from the premise that without the 9/11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the relationship between 'Islam' and 'The West' might well have developed along a different trajectory. This is because both the attacks themselves, as well as linked bombings that followed, led to a significant change in perceptions of the role of non-state, transnational Islamic actors in international relations. Now it was no longer sufficient to see states as the only actors capable of inflicting large-scale, international political violence: 9/11 led to the death of nearly 3,000 people, while subsequent bombs linked to al-Qaeda killed hundreds more. Above all, the 9/11 attacks emphasised that international religious terrorism was now an important factor in international conflict. It called for: (1) a new comparative focus on the themes of conflict and violence associated in the minds of some with Islam, and (2) examination of links between failed states - especially in the Middle East - and the onset of a new phase of international Islamic terrorism.
Milton-Edwards divides her account into five lengthy chapters, preceded by an Introduction and followed by a short concluding chapter. Her Introduction seeks to establish that all of the world religions, not just Islam, have been intimately associated with violence at various times. Chapter 1, entitled 'Religion and Violence: A History of Entanglement', locates the 'return' of religion to international relations in the context of its contemporary deprivatisation and subsequent attempts of religious actors, notably 'fundamentalists', to seek to influence political and social outcomes in a number of countries and in relation to all world religions, including Islam. But, she asks, to what extent is Islam unusually characterised by violence? In the second chapter, she explores why so many non-Muslims in the West routinely characterise Islam as a religion uniquely associated with violence. The answer, she contends, is linked not only to 9/11 but also to a wider, more disparate anti-Israel, anti-Western and anti-American stance that centrally informs the worldviews of Islamic radicals. For many Westerners, these outlooks accumulate in a focused position that either condones or encourages violence as a necessary attempt to deal with existential angst.
Her third chapter asks a further question: Is there an inherent tendency within Islam towards violence that is explicable by the nature of the religion itself? Her response is to see violence as an aspect of the need for revolution articulated by Islamists such as Sayyid Qutb, Mawlana Mawdudi, Ali Shariati, a stance, she contends, that is virtually forced upon contemporary Islamic radicals by the manifest injustices of the current era, partly as a result of US hegemony and partly as a result of the iniquities of globalisation, the benefits of which, she avers, have not been experienced by many Muslims. The fourth chapter explores the debate about 'sacred violence' and makes the point, and makes it well, that to understand why young men and women blow themselves up in the name of Islam, we need to look beyond immediate goals of seeking to redress such egregious political and developmental imbalances to understand that suicide bombers undertake a 'knowing sacrifice' intimately connected to their religious beliefs and aspirations.
The final chapter is concerned with articulating the overall argument of the book with clarity and verve: Islamic radicals may resort to violence and suicide bombings because power to change the world in the ways they would like is not available from any other means. This is not to suggest that such violence will necessarily 'change the world' in desired directions but to highlight that violence is the result of frustration at the iniquities of the world.
After reading this book, I was impressed by the author's depth and breadth of knowledge of a topic that is notoriously complex. Studded with interviews with leading figures from Islamist groups, including Hamas, Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad, Milton-Edwards draws out the whys and wherefores of Islamic violence and its devastating effects not just on the West but on Muslim communities, which are already beset in many cases by conflict and the politics of state-directed tyranny.