Journey into Islam:Crisis of Globalization & Radical Muslims

This is an important book if you want to learn how and why extremists took over Islam. The three factions of Islam that have been fighting for centuries are The Mystics, The Literalists, and the Modernists. The Mystics and Modernists dominated Islam for centuries. All that changed when the Literalists (including al Qaida) started fighting what they considered the Western World's attack on Islam. U.S. and other Western country foreign policies helped the Literalists to dominate Islam. ---BBB

Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization
by Akbar S. Ahmed

About the Author

Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has taught at Princeton, Harvard, and Cambridge universities and is former high commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain. His many books include After Terror: Promoting Dialogue among Civilizations, with Brian Forst (Polity, 2005), and Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History and Society (Routledge, 2002). He hosted "Glories of Islamic Art," a three-part British TV series in late 2006.

Book Description

"Why?" Years after September 11, we are still looking for answers. Internationally renowned Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed knew that this question could not be answered until Islam and the West found a way past the hatred and mistrust intensified by the war on terror and the forces of globalization. Seeking to establish dialogue and understanding between these cultures, Ahmed led a team of dedicated young Americans on a daring and unprecedented tour of the Muslim world. Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization is the riveting story of their search for common ground.

From the mosques of Damascus to the madrassahs of Karachi to the homes of Jakarta, Ahmed and his companions met with Muslims from all walks of life. They listened to students and professors, presidents and prime ministers, sheikhs and cab drivers, revealing Muslim hopes and frustrations as the West has never heard before. They returned from their groundbreaking journey with both cause for concern and occasion for hope.

Rejecting stereotypes and "conventional wisdom" about Islam and its encounter with globalization, this important book offers a new framework for understanding the Muslim world. As Western leaders wage a war on terrorism, Ahmed offers insightful suggestions on how the United States can improve relations with Islamic nations and peoples. Written with equal parts compassion and urgency, Journey into Islam makes a powerful case for forming bonds across religion, race, and tradition to create lasting harmony between Islam and the West. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future survival of the United States as a world leader, for the individual who faces the painful changes of globalization, and for the very future of our planet.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly

In response to the events of September 11, 2001, Ahmed, Islamic studies professor at American University in Washington, D.C., set out last year to visit Muslim nations in the Middle East, South Asia and Far East Asia. Accompanied the entire way by two non-Islamic American students and occasionally by others?-including one American student who was Islamic?-the Pakistani-born professor hoped to improve his understanding of the contemporary Muslim realm in all its diversity.

Not so incidentally, Ahmed also wanted to shatter the stereotype of the U.S. as a warmongering, Islam-hating nation. The result is a fascinating account of how he and his students braved danger to build mutual understanding in Pakistan, India, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia. As academics, they administered detailed questionnaires to Muslims in each nation, while as social creatures, they sat through seminars, luncheons, dinners and casual conversations looking for a candid exchange of ideas about religious, political and cultural differences.

Occasionally Ahmed lapses into academese, loses his humility or generalizes beyond what the evidence seems to support. But mostly he comes across as an honorable man who believes that the future of the human race depends on international dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Review

"Akbar Ahmed has long been one of the beacons of the Muslim spokepersons in the West. Here he breaks new ground by taking the theme of dialogue as guiding light. This is a wonderful way to get a sense of the textures of conversations among contemporary Muslims."

Review
"I strongly urge anyone concerned with the fate of this planet to not only read Journey into Islam, but also heed it."

Lord Anthony Giddens, House of Lords and former director, London School of Economics - "Really interesting and important . . . a break-through in our understanding of the complex relationships between globalization and Islam."

Professor Lawrence Rosen, Princeton University - "A unique reading experience, rich in on-the-ground perception and realistic hope."

Professor Tamara Sonn, College of William & Mary and Former President of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies - "A stunning achievement by one of the world's leading experts on Islam."

Professor Omid Safi, University of North Carolina - "Akbar Ahmed has long been one of the beacons of the Muslim spokepersons in the West. Here he breaks new ground by taking the theme of dialogue as guiding light. This is a wonderful way to get a sense of the textures of conversations among contemporary Muslims."

The Rev. Canon John L. Peterson, Director, Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, Washington National Cathedral - "I strongly urge anyone concerned with the fate of this planet to not only read Journey into Islam, but also heed it."

Lord Bishop James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool/House of Lords, London
"Ahmed has written a book of extraordinary insight. There are few people in the world with such an intimate understanding of America, Europe and Islam."

Professor Shireen Hunter, Middle East Expert and Visiting Scholar, George Washington University - "I commend Professor Akbar Ahmed. This [Journey into Islam] is just another of the many wonderful things he has done. He is really a treasure."