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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with E
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Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of Muslim Fundamentalism |
Author: Mattias Gardell
Published: 2002-01 |
List price: $16.00
Our price: $12.80
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Islamic Apocalypse Culture
EXTREME ISLAM (2001)
edited by Adam Parfrey
Adam Parfrey's Feral House imprint made a big splash with the APOCALYPSE CULTURE anthology. This was a very strange book containing a variety of "extreme" viewpoints, some from the self-publishing underground and others from the art world. As you read Apocalypse Culture, you often think to yourself "somebody really believes this!" or "people like this really exist in the world". Apocalypse Culture was so successful that it spawned a sequel, which was dedicated to Jabotinsky. EXTREME ISLAM continues in this vein, and could very well be called the "APOCALYPSE CULTURE: Muslim Edition".
Extreme Islam is a mix of source documents and useful overviews of the militant Muslim movements. Many of the chapters are made up of declarations against the West, as is to be expected. Some of the articles to give historical background include documentation of a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and an rudimentary history of radical Islam by the Medea Institute. There are also some very creepy articles, such as "How can I train myself for Jihad?", "Killing Infidels in Chechnya" and a Hamas website article suggesting that anthrax should run through the U.S. water supply. One of the last articles in the book is a paper giving instructions to the September 11th hijackers on how to prepare for their plan.
Extreme Islam showcases these people in their own words:
Maulana Maudoodi, intellectual
Hassan al-Banna, founder of Muslim Brotherhood
Anwar Sadat, Arab Nationalist
Sayyid Qutb, hardcore intellectual
Yasser Arafat, Fatah & PLO leader
Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini, Iranian revolutionary
Mummar Qaddafi, Libyan Pan-Islamist
Saddam Hussein, Baathist dictator
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas Founder
Leila Khaled, socialist plane hijacker
Osama bin-Laden, top terrorist
Mullah Omar Mohammed, Taliban figurehead
Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam spokesman
Heidar Jamal, Russian Islamic Committee
Despite it's title, the book isn't only about extreme Islam. It also contains a chapter that attempts to rationalize the militant Zionism of the Gush Emunim group and another detailing the process of Israeli settlements in Muslim areas. There are also two chapters written from a Christian Zionist perspective, calling attention to the historic Temple Mount area which is also home to the famous Dome of the Rock. Some fundamentalist Jews and Christians are seeking to destroy the Dome in so that Solomon's Temple can be rebuilt as prophesied in Matthew 24 and 25.
I understand that some people might consider it tacky or irresponsible to release this book "in the aftermath of September 11". However with the exception of a single article ("Jews in Muslim Lands"), this book consists of documents that already existed in the world prior to it's publication. Certainly they have found a larger audience and some will use it as apologia for Bush's misdeeds. But criticizing a book because some of its readers lack a complete understanding of world issues is itself an ignorant position to take. The information in this book is legitimate and the positions held here have already been read elsewhere. In fact you could also make a "reverse argument" by saying that Muslim extremists could purchase the book and that it might influence them to join a "sleeper cell". Either way, curious readers should not be denied the opportunity to see and discuss these tracts because of what some people might do with the information. Therefore I recommend this book with the same caveat that I give with Peter Lamborn Wilson's 'SACRED DRIFT': "this is a great book about strange trends in Islam, just don't make it the only book you read on Islam".
Interesting but what's the real motivation here?
This book documents some of the most extreme propaganda and writings in the Islamic world reprinting the actual writings. While a high percentage of the Muslim world would probably at the least in an armchair sort of way advocate and/or sympathize with most of whats in this book, at least in a similar vein to a Muslim I once worked with who said although he wouldn't have the courage to kill him with his own hands he still advocated the death of Salman Rushdie, the authors of this book neglect to mention that for years the United States government openly promoted and funded some of the most extreme Islamic factions in the middle east, including out and out founding Al-Queda. I honestly have to wonder how much of the rhetoric that made it into this book was covertly penned by the CIA.
While the stone age behavior of much of the Muslim world can't be denied I also couldn't help but notice that the co-author of this book is also the author of a book that sought to demonize Asatru/Odinists (2/3 of that book wasn't even about Odinism but instead Christian Identity and the Church of the Creator) and also a book about the Nation of Islam. Two groups that certain "hate watchdog" groups seek to paint as boogeymen to scare people into donating money to their organizations so I have to also question the motivations of the publication of this book. Its an interesting read because you get to read some of the most extreme doctrines in the Muslim world, and this book is probably at the top of every chickenhawk neo-cons reading list, but like I said I just don't trust the motivations behind the publication of this book.
 Wow
I am a college student who read this for a graduate class term paper. Being very familiar with Islam, taking 4 classes, I have to sum this book in one word: horrible. It takes ligitimate documents, slaps them together, puts "anti-American propaganda" on the title and expects the audience to blindly flip through the pages and assume that everything in the book is anti-America. In the first 30 pages, America is not mentioned, and when it is finally mentioned, it begins briefly when discussing the creation of Isreal.
I found this book awful because it made me feel pity on the people who find this book incredible. I think that the fear of 9/11 has created a judgement in American's eyes of a culture that they have no idea about. If you want to know more about Arab Peoples, read Hourani's "A History of the Arab Peoples". If you want to read about 'extreme' Islam, read Emmanuel Sivan's "Radical Islam". Another great book is "Islam" by Fazlur Rahman. Finally, I recommend "Taliban" by Rashid.
Do not waste your money on this book. You are not learning anything reading this horrible hodge-podge of documents. If you want to actually learn more about the culture that Americans do not understand, please look into the other titles I have supplied. I hope this helps anyone who wants to learn about Islam/Arabian Peoples.
 The Real Muslim World
Real tales and anecdotes of real Muslims. If you still believe Islam is a religion of peace, read this. Islamic Fundamentalism is the wave of the future in Europe and the US.
It's a better idea to be objective and not in a "haze."
The title of this book is somewhat misleading. Most of the "propaganda" is not propaganda at all but facts that document the absurd rulings and dictates of various factions of Islam such as the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, Moammar Khaddafy, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Yassir Arafat and of course Saddam Hussein. Included are speeches by Arafat and Khomeini, an e-mail from Hussein to an American citizen, Osama's fatwas calling for jihad against Americans, an interview with Mullah Omar, a list of Taliban restictions against women, Hitler's promises to the Mufti of Jerusalem during WWII, and excerpts from Khaddafy's GREEN BOOK. Also here are various conspiracy theories, and directions on how to perform Islamic rituals and Islamic way of life.The "propaganda" contained here are not so much against the American people, but rather against the American-supported State of Israel which occupies Palestine. Some of the materials are here for sheer shock value while others are simply political observations of the Palestine conflict and other West vs. East issues in the Muslim world. Few of these articles share the same viewpoint, and most sound like they have nothing to do with each other. Several, if read OBJECTIVELY, and not simply as examples of how crazy Muslim fundamentalists are, will provide useful information as to how the world works. That is obviously not the intention of the mass distribution of this book however--its attempt was to reinforce readers' predjudices against some aspects of Islam. Should this be the case, it failed with me.
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