The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth about Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast. Published by Constable Ltd., London, 2003. Pp: 400. Pbk: £7.99. By Iqbal Siddiqui This is an expanded edition of a book that was first published, to considerable acclaim, in 2002. Greg Palast, an American journalist who writes for British newspapers because he is seldom able to get his material into American publications, has produced an impassioned expose of many of the lies and myths that the West’s financial and political elites (which are closely linked) peddle in the name of democracy. In doing so, he is following the established tradition of Western dissident intellectuals and journalists such as Naom Chomsky, Howard Zinn, John Pilger and Michael Moore.
The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars by Douglas H. Johnson. Publisher: Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2004. Pp.: 234. Pbk: £12.95/$24.95. By Nasr Salem For outsiders and non-specialists, the on-going crisis in the province of Darfur, western Sudan, has brought to light the fact that the Sudan’s long-drawn-out predicament is made up not of one civil war but rather of several, sometimes interlocking, civil wars. If anything, elucidating the nature of these civil wars requires an understanding of the historical patterns that shaped inter-communal tensions for decades – and perhaps centuries – until they erupted into protracted civil strife. But internal wars often present outside players with opportunities to interfere in the affairs of countries mired in civil strife, and Sudan’s impasse has been no exception.
1The Shi'ite Movement in Iraq by Faleh A. Jabar. Publisher: Saqi Books, London, 2003. Pp.: 391. Pbk: ｣15.99/$24.95. By Nasr Salem Long treated as an underclass, the Shi'a community has moved to occupy a dominant role in the political arena of post-Saddam Iraq. Undoubtedly this change raises many questions about the course of Shi'a political activism in Iraq and the troubled relationship between the Shi'a community and the Iraqi state
The Shi'ite Movement in Iraq by Faleh A. Jabar. Publisher: Saqi Books, London, 2003. Pp.: 391. Pbk: £15.99/$24.95. By Nasr Salem
Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction by Hans Blix. Pub: Bloomsbury, London, 2004. Pp: 285 pp. Pbk: £16.99 / $24.00. By Nasr Salem As the US seems to be sinking into more and more difficulties in Iraq, the question of how it became entangled in a latter-day Vietnam-like quagmire becomes more and more important, at least to the West. That the US and Britain couched their arguments to justify the invasion of Iraq in terms of the search for Iraq’s alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) makes the story of the UN’s inspections in Iraq an essential element of the history of the prelude to war.
Dual Citizenship: British, Islamic or Both? Obligation, Recognition, Respect and Belonging by Saied R. Ameli and Arzu Merali. Pub: The Islamic Human Rights Commission, London, November 2004. Pp: 84. £7.00. Social Discrimination: Across the Muslim Divide by Saied R. Ameli, Manzur Elahi and Arzu Merali. Pub: The Islamic Human Rights Commission, London, December 2004. Pp: 78. £7.00. By Laila Juma
Blaming America First: Inside the Hatred of the United States in the Middle East and Beyond by Laura Drake PhD. Pub: United Association for Studies and Research (UASR), Annandale VA, USA, Pp: 117. US$9.95.
Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward. Pub: Simon & Schuster, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney: 2004. Pp: 467. Hbk: $28.00 / £19.00.
Is There An Islamic Problem? Essays on Islamicate Societies, the US and Israel By M. Shahid Alam. Pub: The Other Press, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 2004. Pbk:$15; pages: 240.
The Infidel Within: Muslims in Britain since 1800 by Humayun Ansari. Pub: Hurst & Co. Ltd., London, 2004. Pages: 438. Pbk: £16.95.
Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations (1996) tried to persuade the American public to accept that war between the West and Islam is inevitable...
On reconsideration, however, the realization emerged that the book is not actually as useless as it first appears, provided one is not misguided by what it says on the cover or, for that matter, what the editor writes in his introduction…
TRANSNATIONAL POLITICAL ISLAM: RELIGION, IDEOLOGY AND POWER edited by Azza Karam. Pub: Pluto Press, London, December 2003. Pp: 157. Pbk: £15.99.
Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources and Strategies by Cheryl Benard. Pub: Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 2004. Pp: 118. Pbk: $20. (Also available on-line to download.)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (30th anniversary edition). Pub: Continuum International, New York, 2003. Pp: 183. Pbk: $15.95.
Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky. Pub: Metropolitan Books, New York, 2003. Pp: 278. Hbk: $22.00
Our Decline: Its Causes and Remedies by Amir Shakib Arslan (new, revised edition). Pub: Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2004 (www.ibtbooks.com). Pp: 175. US$8.00.
British Muslims: Loyalty and Belonging edited by Mohammad Siddique Seddon, Dilwar Hussain and Nadeem Malik. Pub: The Islamic Foundation, Markfield, UK, and the Citizen Organization Foundation, London, UK, 2003. Pp: 116. Pbk: £4.95.
Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in Europe and the Middle East by John L. Esposito and Francios Burgat (editor). Pub: Hurst & Co., London, 2003. Pp: 278. Pbk: £16.50 / US$24.00.
The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East (Third Edition) by David Hirst. Pub: Nation Books, New York, 2003. Pp: 626. Pbk: US$17.95.
