Warriors Of The Prophet: The Struggle For Islam

by Mark Huband

Overview

Based on eyewitness accounts and original interviews, this bold new work provides a vivid portrayal of the evolving political and cultural role played by Islamic fundamentalist movements. Drawing on his firsthand experiences, Mark Huband moves deep inside the contemporary Islamic movements of countries as diverse as Morocco and Afghanistan.Huband reveals how Western powers have contributed to the rise of Islamic movements by their earlier support of the Afghan Islamic resistance and gives detailed accounts of his discussions with militant groups, Muslim scholars, and political opponents of the Islamic movements.Enriching these discussions, the author contextualizes the movements by exploring their historical and intellectual framework. The book uniquely illustrates the variety found within the movements, as well as the range of relationships the Islamic movements have to the various countries in which they are active.Warriors of the Prophet details the current crisis in Algeria; the disappointments of Arab nationalism and socialist experiments in Egypt; the social breakdown of Somalia in relation to the ideal of an Islamic way of life; the disaffected youth in the Islamic movements of Morocco, Egypt, and elsewhere; and the Islamic experiment and its relationship with the non-Islamic world as revealed in Sudan's experience since 1989. Through these insightful accounts, Huband gives us a penetrating exploration of one of the major issues of the late twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813327815
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/24/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

Mark Huband is an award-winning journalist and former correspondent for The Guardian, The Observer, and The Times. He is currently Security Correspondent for the Financial Times. He lives in London.

What People are Saying About This

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed

A significant contribution to the genuine understanding of the contemporary Islamic upsurge, too often misrepresented and diabolized. -- Political commentator for Al-Abram

Francois Burgat

An excellent and important work.. .it fills the urgent need to challenge contemporary mythology that political violence in the Arab world -- or elsewhere -- can be explained by mere referencec to Islamic culture or religion. -- Author of l'Islmisme au Maghreb and l'Islaisme en face

Editorial Reviews

An interesting and timely study which should be read with careful attention.

Allen Ramsay

A highly entertaining book that comes at a most opportune time.

Copley News Service

An excellent and important work.

Francois Burgat

In these probing dispatches, Financial Times Cairo correspondent Huband examines how Islam has reasserted itself in global politics, presenting the views of political figures, dissidents and Muslim scholars in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia to show the evolution of the 'Islamic Revival.' In Algeria, a resurgent Islamist movement of anti-French intellectuals, the unemployed and militant veterans of Afghanistan's mujahideen attacks Algeria's political/military elite for perpetuating colonialism through its ties to French business interests. In Sudan, a nine-year experiment to build an Islamic theocratic state has brought stagnation to a country ravaged by a civil war that has claimed a million lives. In the patchwork of warring clans that Somalia comprises, armed Islamic groups vie for a role in government, claiming that only the implementation of Muhammad's original teachings will save the nation from further anarchy. Huband argues that contemporary militant Islam represents a historic phase of the evolving religion. Huband's emphasis is intentionally on the more radical, militant end of the spectrum, rather than on the mainstream, but his survey still subverts the conventional Western view of Islam as a homogenous movement intent upon returning to an idealized past.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Religious violence is a major issue right now, and Islam is a prime suspect in our press. Huband, Cairo correspondent for Financial Times, has spent many years in Islamic countries and has interviewed a number of the major actors in the field. He discusses eight countries separately -- including Algeria, Morocco, and Afghanistan -- and concludes that Islamic revivalism is a destabilizing result of colonialism, for the unifying force of independence is religion, not nationalism. He argues that Islam is evolving according to its own cultural milieu and that militants and radicals are prominent because they reflect the social upheaval of each country and not the tenets of the faith. The depth of Huband's knowledgeable analysis makes his book best suited for experts. -- Louise F. Leonard, University of Florida Libraries, Gainesville

Library Journal

The Cairo correspondent for the Financial Times draws on his personal observation and contacts to inquire into the Islamic fundamentalist phenomenon from Morocco to Afghanistan. He also discusses the contributions of Islamic history, modern warfare, religious things, and western policy. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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