Field: Politics, Palestine
Title: Hamas: Unwritten Chapters
Authors: Azzam Tamimi
Publication: Hurst & Company, London 2007
ISBN: 1-85065-834-X
Rating: 3/5
Level: Intermediate
Reviewed by: Safwan

After more than twenty years of accumulating public support and influence, Hamas was born in the middle of what the Palestinians believe to be an endless iniquitous aggression from the Israeli side. The 7 Ikhwan leaders who founded this organization include Syeikh Ahmad Yassin and Dr Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi, whom, as the future reveals, were later to be martyrs. As a comprehensive Islamic resistance group, Hamas utilizes both political and military means to attain its objective; restoring Palestinian rights.

It was not until after long being suppressed by the Nasiri regime that the Ikhwan, the predecessor of Hamas, could breathe again. Many Arabs were convinced that nationalism is their only train to glory, a state they have lost for many centuries. However the atmosphere changes at the symbolic defeat of nationalism in the 1967 6-day-war between Israel and the Arabs. This already-pared confidence is further inflicted by the Black September of 1970 and Anwar Sadat’s friendly visit to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) 7 years later. The Islamists saw these and grabbed their chance.

With nationalist PLO at war with Israel, the Zionists didn’t in any way see the Islamists as a threat when they started their work at grassroots level. The Ikhwan continued to provide sports facilities, recreational trips, scout events, mosques, kindergartens, schools and clinics- trying to ignore the insolent assaults to their country. However, after the Sabra & Shatila massacre in 1982 the pressure mounted, and they came out with a Jihad plan; a prelude to Sheikh Yassin’s arrest two years later.

Two years after Hamas’ inception, it suffered a near-fatal blow. The leadership began to consider transferring its centre of operation outside Palestine, a task soon taken and headed by Abu Marzuq. For a few years, Jordan warmly welcomed their presence there and for the country to be used as a political base. Things changed when the Jordanian authorities was inundated with too much pressure from the US and Israel, especially after the demise of King Hussein. Hamas was later welcomed by Qatar and then Syria.

Many parties with personal motives are dying to incapacitate Hamas. This includes the Palestinian Authority whose members are mostly American-backed Fatah members. The right to governance Hamas won from the Palestinians in 2006 was undermined by these people, which culminated and made worse by the Israeli who in 29 June 2006 kidnapped 64 Hamas officials, rendering its government handicapped. In spite of it all, Hamas continues to attract more and more support from lovers of freedom and justice all around the world.

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Field: Politics, Sociology
Title: Islam and Secularism in the Middle East
Authors: John L. Esposito, Azzam Tamimi & other contributors
Publication: Hurst & Company, London 2002
ISBN: 1-85065-541-3
Rating: 3/5
Level: Advanced
Reviewed by: Safwan

Eleven well-written article compiled, this book presents to the readers a wide range of issues and discussions on the relatively new and very much controversial world dogma; secularism. This ideology, or religion (as some argued), has always claimed to be the sole promoter of material advances, modernization, civilization, democracy and human rights. Such claim, however, is unequivocally rebutted and trashed by this book and countless others.

Historical facts alone would argue against the picture of a sacrosanct secularism. When it claimed to be the proponent of democracy, we have helplessly witnessed how they toppled the Islamic Liberation Front (Algeria) and Refah Party (Turkey) despite them being elected by the people. On top of that, they have painted a false picture of the incompatibility of Islam and democracy; a depiction true only about themselves.

Secularism, an advanced form of laicism, is a product of the West, and only suitable for such people. We, ‘the Rest’, do not share their history of being oppressed by a group of ecclesiastics claiming to be intermediaries between us and our Creator, thus granting themselves the status of infallibility, half-mortal, or godly. In fact, Islam has been protecting Muslims from tyrannies, authoritarianism and obscurantism until the moment it was foolishly abandoned. Unlike the Western experience of Church oppression, under the banner of Islam modernism was and is preached by countless esteemed thinkers like Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, Khairuddin al-Tunisi, Jamaluddin al-Afghani, Abdel Rahman al-Kawakibi, Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, and Rachid al-Gannouchi.

In fact, John Keane and other authors found perilous limitations within the ideology. Keane argued that it is far from possible to replace certainty of religiosity with existential uncertainty. It’s affinity with political despotism and corruption is also a major concern for many people until today. Perhaps this is why, according to Berger, Islam and Evangalism is on the rise in many parts of the contemporary world.

Helplessly, secularism is bombarded with heaps of philosophical arguments that fail to agree with it. While presenting itself as a champion of drawing a line between public and private life, it actually penetrates deepest into our private sphere- as told by the undeniable experience of civilians in the West. By making the world godless and reducing man to natural matter, it is unclear whether our dignity and rights will still be retained. It advocates nature at the expense of God, but ironically men, as claimed to be the product of the former, never cease to conquer and rule over its ‘creator’. The impossibility reaches its peak as the ‘immanent’ man creates another logos and thus dualism and polarity, which culminates into the incumbent assimilation and annihilation of one or the other.

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Field: Islam, Politics
Title: Muslims under non-Muslim Rule
Author: Yahya Michot
Publication: Interface publications 2006
ISBN: 978-0-9554545-6-1
Rating: aaa
Level: Advanced
Reviewed by: Safwan

The highly academic work was written to shed a light on Ibn Taymiyya’s fatwa regarding muslims ruled by non-muslims. The fatwa is very much concentrated around Mardin, a city in Syria which was ruled by the invading Mongols. The book started with an adequate explanation of its background; being a Turkish town under Najmuddin Ghazi II, allegedly a ‘slave’ of the Mongol Sultan.

It then went on to expound on Ibn Taimiyya’s ruling (fatwa) as understood and quoted by six modern readings, in which five of them have interpreted it in a way that would never be concurred by the Damascene theologian should he be alive today. The arguments were presented around the issues of ‘domain of peace’ (dar al-islam) and ‘domain of war’ (dar al-harb), legitimacy of migration, and jihad against rulers. Ibn Taimiyya’s own arguments from translated texts were laid so as to disown the theologian from the misled justifications used by some islamists today.

The book was then continued by embodying the very six modern readings (mentioned earlier) into its pages. This was done after all the arguments (mainly) against them were presented, aiding the readers to better recognise their fallacies. Yahya Michot very much regretted how the world today- muslims and non-muslims, media and academic- have illustrated the great and respected theologian contemptuously; in a way that he never deserves to be pictured. Often he has been misquoted as the ‘father of Islamic extremism’. Yahya Michot even convincingly showed how Guy Sorman, a reputed professor at the Institut des Sciences Politiques of the University of Paris, blatantly erred when he blamed Ibn Taimiyya for giving rise to every single fundamentalist movements to this date.

Finally, a very helpful chronology of events in Ibn Taimiyya’s life was laid down in the last few pages of the book.

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Field: Politics
Title: Speeches that changed the world
Compiled by: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Publication: Quercus Publishing 2006
ISBN 10: 1-84724-087-9
Rating: aaaa
Level: Beginner
Reviewed by: Shamil Semanat

The book as the title suggests provides readers with a number of speeches delivered from as early as Prophet Moses's 'The Tenth Commendments' to George W. Bush's 'Address to the Nation' after the 9/11 incident. It also includes an introduction from Simon Sebag Montefiore, a historian and writer by profession. Valued at £25, I find the book not only worthwhile but has the ability to rouse and inspire even those who have no interest in world event. The layout and arrangement are particularly amazing in that it introduce the person referred to before his speech. In this, it provide those anew to history of the world a ground basis to understand and appreciate not only the speech but also the event taken place during the era.

One speech I personally admired was this one, from John F. Kennedy for his inaugural address;

..."We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

..."So let us begin anew—remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us."

..."All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

..." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

And this one is from The Closing Speech of Clarence Darrow, a defense lawyer from States which i find it too imposing to just leave out;

"Now, gentlemen, just one more word, and I am through with this case. I do not live in Detroit. But I have no feeling against this city. In fact, I shall always have the kindest remembrance of it, especially if this case results as I think and feel that it will. I am the last one to come here to stir up race hatred, or any other hatred. I do not believe in the law of hate. I may not be true to my ideals always, but I believe in the law of love, and I believe you can do nothing with hatred. I would like to see a time when man loves his fellow man, and forgets his color or his creed. We will never be civilized until that time comes.

I know the Negro race has a long road to go. I believe the life of the Negro race has been a life of tragedy, of injustice, of oppression. The law has made him equal, but man has not. And, after all, the last analysis is, what has man done?--and not what has the law done? I know there is a long road ahead of him, before he can take the place which I believe he should take. I know that before him there is suffering, sorrow, tribulation and death among the blacks, and perhaps the whites. I am sorry. I would do what I could to avert it. I would advise patience; I would advise toleration; I would advise understanding; I would advise all of those things which are necessary for men who live together.

Gentlemen, what do you think is your duty in this case? I have watched, day after day, these black, tense faces that have crowded this court. These black faces that now are looking to you twelve whites, feeling that the hopes and fears of a race are in your keeping.

This case is about to end, gentlemen. To them, it is life. Not one of their color sits on this jury. Their fate is in the hands of twelve whites. Their eyes are fixed on you, their hearts go out to you, and their hopes hang on your verdict.

This is all. I ask you, on behalf of this defendant, on behalf of these helpless ones who turn to you, and more than that,--on behalf of this great state, and this great city which must face this problem, and face it fairly,--I ask you, in the name of progress and of the human race, to return a verdict of not guilty in this case!"

In short, I believe the book will be very beneficial to those who have interest in global events; especially to those who appreciate the art of speech writing. Besides, upon reading, I'm sure some will find a number of speeches written here to be of utmost relevant to our condition nowadays; eventhough years have past since.

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