The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West

By Gilles Kepel

Book Overview

The events of September 11, 2001, forever changed the world as we knew it. In their wake, the quest for international order has prompted a reshuffling of global aims and priorities. In a fresh approach, Gilles Kepel focuses on the Middle East as a nexus of international disorder and decodes the complex language of war, propaganda, and terrorism that holds the region in its thrall. The breakdown of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in 2000 was the first turn in a downward spiral of violence and retribution. Meanwhile, a neo-conservative revolution in Washington unsettled U.S. Mideast policy, which traditionally rested on the twin pillars of Israeli security and access to Gulf oil. In Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, a transformation of the radical Islamist doctrine of Bin Laden and Zawahiri relocated the arena of terrorist action from Muslim lands to the West; Islamist radicals proclaimed jihad against their enemies worldwide. Kepel examines the impact of global terrorism and the ensuing military operations to stem its tide. He questions the United States' ability to address the Middle East challenge with Cold War rhetoric, while revealing the fault lines in terrorist ideology and tactics. Finally, he proposes the way out of the Middle East quagmire that triangulates the interests of Islamists, the West, and the Arab and Muslim ruling elites. Kepel delineates the conditions for the acceptance of Israel, for the democratization of Islamist and Arab societies, and for winning the minds and hearts of Muslims in the West.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674015754
• ISBN13: 9780674015753
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

A Required Text

This should be required reading -- and debating -- material for the post-Sept 11th Western World. This is why there is an al-Jazeera And why many light-skinned Scots and English broadcasters have gone to work for ***them***.

An involving survey and history charts the ongoing `war'

Gilles Kepel is a professor of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, and is the perfect author for WAR FOR MUSLIM MINDS: ISLAM AND THE WEST: his background succeeds in synthesizing the wealth of detail charting the breakdown of Middle East/Western relations. Chapters provide both a history and analysis of the breakdown of communications between East and West, pinpointing changing policies and party lines on both sides and analyzing the effects of terrorism on the peace process. An involving survey and history charts the ongoing `war'.

An Illustration of the Complexities of the "War on Terror"

Gilles Kepel has produced a significant book that wonderfully addresses the complexities the world currently faces in trying to figure which way Muslims will turn; whether towards violent Jihad or an Islamic Democracy. Kepel deals with many subjects pertaining to this issue. However, he spends a great deal of time comparing the goals of the neoconservative movement in the U.S. with al Qaeda and its intellectual prognosticators. On the one hand are the neocons. The neocons have clear goals in mind: securing the world's oil supply for the west; protecting and securing Israel; ensuring the continued dominance of the U.S., especially in military terms. However, they have deluded themselves into following fantastical policies that end up exacerbating problems (i.e. the invasion of Iraq and the blind support for Ariel Sharon) rather than improving the situation. On the other hand are al Qaeda and its fellow travelers. Kepel explores this complex phenomenon by traveling through the history of Islamist thinking. He follows the development of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and beyond. He also spends a great deal of time explaining the development of religious authority in Saudi Arabia, including the state sponsored Salafi movement that was more inward looking, and the violent jihadist movement, more political and overt in its aims. These two ideologies running into each other has been a contributing factor of much of the terror and insecurity in the world. Kepel sees as the best hope for a future Islamic democracy lying in Europe, where different states have taken divergent measures to respond to the challenge of new cultures. But the ends in each of the states of Western Europe are the same: to imbue in the Muslims in their society a respect for pluralism and democracy. Kepel sees the potential for the inculcation of democratic values in European Muslims having far reaching implications, for example by creating a respect for democratic institutions and the possibility of those Muslim supporters of democracy exporting their ideas back to their home countries. Either way, democracy can't be imported by foreigners, especially by force. Kepel has written an important book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in confronting one of the most important challenges of our time.

A Litany of Missteps

This is an excellent overview of how the United States got into a situation from which there seems to be no satisfactory exit. Gilles Keppel concisely and clearly explains the history of the Muslim movement as well as the numerous missteps made by the United States in the Middle East, particularly since 1945. He shows that both Democratic and Republican administrations have made moves that can at best be described as pragmatic rather than prescient and right in the long run. Keppel's insight into how the rest of the people in the world and Muslims might accommodate each other is less than convincing, but, in sum, this is an important book that well deserves careful reading.

Indispenable

Kepel's new book is indispensable for anyone who wants to get a comprehensive, thorough, and balanced understanding of the threat posed by Islamic radicals today and of the logic/illogic behind the US response to that threat. Kepel's book focuses on three basic subjects. First, he provides a precis of the fuller description of Islamic radicalism that he gave in his earlier (excellent) book, Jihad. Second, he traces the neoconservative lineage of President Bush's approach to meeting the Islamic threat-- unsucessfully, so far. Notably, Kepel says almost nothing about Europe's response/attitude, perhaps because Europe seems to be waiting on the sidelines of history to see who will win, the US or the radicals. Finally, Kepel expresses hope that the Muslims who live in infidel Europe will prove to be a source of reconciliation and progress in the Muslim world at large, exporters of western liberalism as it were. With regard to this last point I can only say, "from his mouth to God's ear," although I personally see no reason for even guarded optimism. This is the best book on the subject by far.