Overview

"The Arab Spring is really an Islamic one and the logical result of a century and a half of imperialist intrigues to incorporate the Middle East and Central Asia into the imperial project. How did this come about? What are the chances of the Muslim world asserting an independent position in the face of American empire and the rising non-imperial world bloc? This book views Islam as a way of life as opposed to western post-Enlightenment secularism where the separation of church and state shunts religion off to the periphery of modern life. It reviews and critiques the long historical rivalry between Islam and Christianity/ Judaism that has resulted in a distorted understanding of Islam in the West, and also how Islam views the West. All the monotheisms have a linear concept of time/ history, which in the case of Christianity/ Judaism led logically to capitalism, Marx and the communist apocalypse. The Islamic project contains its own socioeconomic solution which prevented the rise of capitalism/ imperialism, making it the loser in technology race of 19th-20th cc. Walberg provides an overview of imperialism and colonialism in the Muslim world, recapping his thesis in Postmodern Imperialism (Chinese edition to be released by Nankei University Press), of the historical movement in the first ""great Games"" (ex-Ottoman Levant and Raj/ Afghanistan/ Iran under British empire) through the second and third (colour revolutions vs revival of Islamic vision of Caliphate to replace imperialism). The Islamic reform traditions from the 19th century on (deriving from Al-Afghani, Qutb) incorporating the Islamic critique of the West is addressed as well as the Sunni/ Shia, mainstream/ Sufi/ Salafi divisions. The 20th century experience of Islamic states (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran) will be reviewed, as well as the current dynamics of the Muslim world (Saudi, Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and now Egypt/ Tunisia/ Libya). Finally, Walberg considers the effects of developments in the Muslim world on western political events, which are increasingly inspired by the Middle East, including the BDS movement."

Full Product Details

Author:   Eric Walberg
Publisher:   Clarity Press
Imprint:   Clarity Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.60cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780985335380

ISBN 10:   0985335386
Pages:   300
Publication Date:   13 October 2013
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Definitions; How did the Arab Spring come about?; Chapter 1 Islam, Christianity and Judaism Muhammad and Islam - 7th-16th centuries Early Islamic reform - (sharia/ fiqh, ijtihad/ taqlid, hadd/ ta'zir, maqasid, five pillars + jihad), Sufism, politics, economics Early relations between Europe and the Muslim world, the ascendancy of rationalism and capitalism in the West Relations from the sixteenth century to 'independence' (Turkey, Egypt, Levant, Africa, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, India, southeast Asia); Appendix A: Theological differences in the monotheisms; Appendix B: Philosophical debates in Islam; Appendix C: The 'Protestant' ethic, the rise of New Ageism and fundamentalism; Chapter 2 The genesis of re-emerging Islamic civilization Reform from within the imperialist system from the 19th century on Wali Allah/ Wahhab/ Afghani/ Abduh Political nationalism and economic nationalism (socialism) - constructing a secular state independent of the West Relations between Europe and the Muslim world from 'independence' to independence (Turkey, Egypt, Levant, Africa, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India/ Pakistan, southeast Asia); Appendix A: Islamic Reformation calls; Appendix B: Contemporary secularists/ nationalists; Chapter 3 Re-emerging Islamic civilization - theory Reform from outside the system - traditionalists as holistic modernists Traditionalists - Turkey, Egypt, Levant, north Africa, Iran, Pakistan, south east Asia, the West Premodern revivalists - from Wahhabi to neo-Wahhabi; Appendix A: Bin Laden, Awlaki obituaries; Appendix B: Saudi dissidents; Appendix C: Esposito's list of influential Muslims; Chapter 4 Re-emerging Islamic civilization - practice 20th-21st century experience of Islam (Turkey, Egypt, Levant, Africa, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Pakistan/ India Bangladesh, southeast Asia, the West) Issues - Nationalism and the Sunni-Shia divide, Jihad, hadd laws, Women and converts, Economics; (Appendix A: Parallels between Iran and Egypt); (Appendix B: MB international office); Appendix C: Grassroots Islamic activism examples; Appendix D: Azhar in the 1980s-2010s; Appendix E: The Muslim village project; (Appendix F: Arab Human Development Reports); Chapter 5 From postmodernism to postsecularism: Muhammad vs/and Marx The revelation-reason dialectic today The caliphate as the Islamic version of globalization; Overcoming the contradiction of science-religion, individual-society, inner-outer transformation, means-ends via the reason-revelation dialectic 21st century ijtihad: interpreting sharia in today's world.

Reviews

should serve as a gateway to understanding Islam, and its location in the emerging new political dynamics, resulting from the bankruptcy of capitalism, and the lack of any other convincing alternatives. Walberg's book is an essential read-both revealing and very inspiring. RAMZY BAROUD

Author Information

Eric Walberg is known worldwide as a journalist specializing in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. A graduate of University of Toronto and Cambridge in economics, he has been writing on East-West relations since the 1980s, He has lived in both the Soviet Union and Russia, and then Uzbekistan, as a UN adviser, writer, translator and lecturer. Presently a writer for the foremost Cairo newspaper, Al Ahram, he is also a regular contributor to Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Global Research, Al-Jazeerah and Turkish Weekly, and is a commentator on Voice of the Cape radio. His articles appear in Russian, German, Spanish and Arabic and are accessible at his website http://ericwalberg.com. In 2011 Walberg was one of the speakers in the Leaders for Change Summit in Istanbul along with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, Tariq Ramadan, Kofi Annan, Steven Kinzer and Al Gore.

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