Shmuel Bar

This book's conclusion is basically something I have been saying for a while: until the moderates in the religion (Islam in this case, but a lot of what is in the book could apply to a lot of Christians in the U.S.) not only condemn, but flat out reject, denounce, and kick out of their groups the radical elements, things are not going to change. Pure and simple. A lot of radical extremism in religion thrives because of the silent majority that either says nothing (because they do not want to create dissension within the religion) or approves tacitly of what the radicals do in the first place.

I gave the book three stars, but it is not because it is a bad book. It is not a riveting book, but it is an important book that more people should be reading. Personally, I read it to further my understanding of Islam, the Islamist movement, and so on. The book works in that regard. The book looks at fatwas in Islam and the role of those documents in promoting and encouraging terrorism using Islam as the basis for said terrorism. In the end, if those who claim to be pious and decent (I am sure there are some of those folk out there) do not act, then they are as bad as the extremists. Read this book to understand how they think. To understand what motivates them. But not all may be hopeless. There is a small minority trying to use fatwas as a tool to condemn terrorism. True, they have not entered the Islamic mainstream (Islam is extremely resistant to any kind of change from within, another reason that allows terrorists to thrive), but those trying to change may be the only real way to defeat the radicals.

… (mer)