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JOURNEY INTO ISLAM: THE CRISIS OF GLOBALIZATION. By Akbar Ahmed. Brookings Institution Press. 320 pages. $28.95.
Since 9/11 there has been a noisy, boisterous, and occasionally nasty debate on both sides of the yawning and widening East-West divide. In this huge echo chamber, instead of listening to each other, people hear the reverberations of their own voices and concerns. The result has been increasing alienation of the Muslim societies from the policies of the West and in turn an unprecedented increase in Islamophobia in the West.

A noted anthropologist and holder of an endowed chair at the American University in Washington, Akbar Ahmed is widely known for his BBC series Living Islam and for his many books on Islam and Muslims. In this book he takes a deep and penetrating look at the Islamic world through the prism of history, both current and remote.

Ahmed and two of his non-Muslim students visited eight Islamic countries — India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, Malaysia, and Indonesia — to talk to a cross section of people about their attitudes towards America, their fears and their concerns. From bits and pieces of information they gathered and observations they made they have painted a fascinating picture of contemporary Islamic world.

Most of the people in those countries feel alienated from the West and believe that the war on terrorism is in fact a war against Islam being waged under the rubric of globalization. Ahmed, while analyzing complexities of Islamic societies and the impact of different ‘models’ of Islamic thought on those societies, invariably points towards a reasonable approach to tackle myriad problems, both internal and external.

He is a master of simplification. He can take snarled strands of culture, religion, and traditions and through the reason and logic of an anthropologist, Islamic scholar, and historian, is able to untangle the complex jigsaw puzzle and present it in an easy to comprehend narrative.

He pegs his research and his conclusions on three models of Islamic thought that have, one way or another, influenced and motivated generations of Muslims the world over. All three are from the Indian Subcontinent but they have had much wider reach and influence. These include the Sufis, the orthodox, and the moderates.

One would think that because of different philosophical underpinnings, followers of these models would respond differently to the challenges posed by the war on terrorism and push for globalization. Surprisingly, there is considerable unanimity of views among Muslims no matter what stripe they wear. They all are afraid of being swept aside by the surging tide of globalization, which they feel is meant to undermine their religious traditions.

This fear is partly based on the 500-year colonial era. The colonists ruled Muslim lands with two objectives; to exploit natural resources of the occupied lands and to civilize them by converting them to Christianity. The current push for globalization is, to many, the re-colonization of the Islamic world, albeit with a difference. This time the seeds of exploitation are hidden in the Trojan horse of globalization.

Against all the distorted perception of Islam by the West and somewhat paranoid response of the Islamic world towards the West, an ongoing dialogue between three monotheistic religions is of utmost importance. Ahmed’s journey into that relatively uncharted territory has been progressing for the past many years, particularly after 9/11, and his recent book is another milepost, an important one, on that long and often perilous journey.

S. Amjad Hussain is an op-ed columnist for The Blade and an emeritus professor of surgery at the University of Toledo College of Medicine.

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