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Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy By Fawaz A. Gerges ( Harcourt )
Release Date: 2006-05-08
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Product Description
A civil war is being waged among jihadists for the soul of Islam. While all Islamist radicals may share a vision of a purified and unified ummah, or Muslim community, few agree over how to bring it about. Ultra-militant wings, such as Al Qaeda, dominate our thoughts and headlines, for they exported their brand of terrorism to America’s shores and now have carried it into the heart of Iraq. Yet they are in the minority. Most jihadists are struggling, often against great odds and under enormous pressures, to accommodate themselves to gradual social and political change in the Arab world.
As Middle Eastern scholar and media commentator Fawaz A. Gerges reveals in this unstinting, deeply personal, and brilliantly illuminating book, we need to know now more than ever who the jihadists are and to listen to what they are saying to each other and the world. Gerges went to Cairo, birthplace of modern Islamist radical thought, and began a dialogue with one of the movement’s founders. Using these conversations as a starting point, Gerges spoke with hundreds of other jihadists throughout the Arab world, tracing the evolution of extremist thought from the 1970s to the present—from the civil war in Lebanon, which Gerges and his family endured, to the war in Iraq that is giving Al Qaeda a new lease on life.
The jihadist journey has led through bloodshed and turmoil. It did not begin on September 11th and it will not end in Baghdad. This crucially important and timely book maps the direction jihadism will take in the months and years ahead by showing where—and with whom—it all started.
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 Journey of the Jihadist
I thought that this was one of the best accounts of the history and current day events leading to today's conflict with people of Muslim background. The author is of Muslim descent, and is able to explain the events that have led up to the major conflict that we are involved in today. He presents the events and thought patterns of the Mulsim people that have triggered events throughout the 1970s and until today. He actually begins with 600 AD when the Muslim ruler failed to name a successor to the throne, thus handing leadership over to a group that doesn't have 'bloodrights to the throne' and the authority to rule. He explains the religious thoughts that prevail in the minds of people that follow Islam. The author is fair in his presentation of the material and provides a solid understanding of the timeline of events and what led up to them. I give this book five stars because I developed a much clearer understanding of the trouble that America has gotten themselves into and why. We are cowboys with white hats, but no brains underneath. At least not a brain that is willing to listen to the other side of the story.
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A More Nuanced View... ( thuds45 )
2006's "Journey of the Jihadist" is Fawaz Gerges' investigation of Muslim militancy, a far more nuanced phenomenum than perhaps its most public face, the transnational terrorist movement al Qaeda. Gerges, a native of Lebanon now living in the United States, enjoyed remarkable access before and after 9/11 to a variety of prominent Islamists, who provide fascinating insight into Muslim militancy.
The roots of Muslim militancy predate 9/11, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and even many of Israel's conflicts with its Arab neighbors. As Gerges notes, its origins lie in Muslim discontent with the failures of modern ideologies (Communism, Socialism, and nationalism) to provide effective and responsive government, especially in the Arab world. As far back as the 1950's, students and others discontented with the status quo turned to Muslim fundamentalism to renew Muslim life.
This turn to fundamentalism was translated by the first generation of jihadists into unrest, terrorism, and rebellion, brutally suppressed by the governments of Egypt, Algeria, and other regimes which failed to implement the sharia as the basis of governance. A second generation of jihadists would arise in the ultimately successful struggle to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan, and a third generation has been inspired by the conflict engendered in the Global War on Terrorism.
The jihadists thrive on a sense of the superiority of the Islamic relgion for resolving life's problems, but their militancy is fed by other themes. The jihadists cannot accept the presence of the Jewish State of Israel in the Middle East. The jihadists have a profound fear of the effects of Western-driven globalization, especially the political and sexual liberation of women. The jihadists are infuriated by the presence of U.S. and Western military forces in the Middle East, regardless of cause.
Understanding Muslim militancy, as Gerges explores, is made more difficult for the Western observer by the addiction of the jihadists to a worldview of vast Jewish-Crusader-Apostate conspiracies, elaborate logic-proof confections of half-truths, lies, and fantasies of revenge for real and imagined wrongs. The inability to arrive at a common, fact-based appreciation of circumstances must make very unlikely any meaningful political dialogue in the near term.
Gerges tends to stay in the background of his narrative, letting the jihadists speak for themselves. Far from being a monolithic movements, the jihadists have disagreed and continue to disagree among themselves over both means and ends. Equally interesting is the evoluation of thought among some radicals now grown older and wiser and more conscious of the limits of possible change.
"Journey of the Jihadists" is very highly recommended for its insights into Muslim militancy, a much more nuanced phenomenum than simple terrorism.
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 Important and Surprising Perspective on the Shades of Jihad ( mononadoug )
In `Journey to the Jihadist', Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, provides extremely valuable insight into the mindset of Islamic jihadist. Or more correctly, make that plural `mindsets' because the central message of Gerges work is that even among jihadists opinions vary widely as to correct principles, strategies, and tactics.
Gerges starts out with some background to the modern jihad movement and its founder Sayyid Qutb who matriculated at Stanford and Colorado State College of Education for two years in the 1940s. Qutb was appalled by the empty materialism and especially the sexual license he perceived. He returned to play an instrumental role in radicalizing the Muslim Brotherhood. Try The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage) by Lawrence Wright for a more detailed consideration of Qutb's role in the radicalizing of Islam.
Gerges, who was raised as Greek Orthodox in Lebanon, traces the development of the jihad through three generations starting with Kamal el-Said Habib. Kamal played a role in the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, but later forswore violence as means to Islamize society for political means. The second generation is represented by Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard Abu-Jandal . Gerges identifies the third generation as uneducated youth being radicalized by the American occupation of Iraq.
Gerges attempts to demonstrate that many if not most jihadists rejected bin Laden's attack on the West, some for moral reasons, more because they viewed it an ill-advised assault on the world's superpower. Much of the antipathy toward bin Laden flows, of course from Shiites. Gerges suggests that bin Laden and Al Qaeda were faring very poorly after 9-11 and the US rout of the Taliban, but that the US invasion of Iraq has almost universally enraged Muslims.
While Gerges' book provides essential context and perspective it suffers from inadequate identification of his sources. His endnotes state that his main sources are interviews he conducted between 1990 and 2005. He also identifies printed interviews and books for each chapter. He chose not, however, to footnote his work so it is usually impossible to identify a source for particular statements. He states that he was unable to interview Abu-Jandal, but still freely quotes him. The book has a bit of a slapdash feel to it, especially in a late chapter discussing the British Muslims and the London bombings. Gerges also accepts exaggerated claims by Arab Afghans of their role in defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Despite these shortcomings, Gerges' book provides much-needed perspective on the varying shades of even radical Islam and how the American occupation of Iraq is pushing more and more Muslims toward jihad against `the far enemy' - the West in general and the US in particular. Highly recommended.
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An Interview with Muslim Extremists. ( mistydillemuth )
Fawaz Gerges does an excellent job of providing insight into the mind of several Islamic jihadists. The book is well written and a very easy read. It consists of six chapters and the soft cover edition has 293 pages of text. Each chapter is essentially an assessment of a particular jihadist. In this manner, the author is able to cover numerous events of recent Islamic history such as the assassination of Anwar Sadat, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the 9/11 attacks. By discussing these events, the author is able to highlight significant differences of opinion within the Arab world.
For example, Kamal el-Said Habib was a former member of al-Jihad or "Armed Struggle;" the organization involved in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. As he grew older, Kamal's predilection for violence diminished. Before 2001, he would have supported anyone, even the U.S., who turned against secular, Muslim rulers. His opinions changed after 2001 and he now views U.S. forces in Iraq as symbolizing American aggression against all Muslims. This jihadist made a complete circle back to advocating violence.
The second chapter provides a history of the Lebanese Civil War and how Christian militias tried to use ethnic cleansing. The author outlines a Christian plot to poison the water in the Muslim sector. It was an effort at genocide to keep Muslim fertility rates down. To some extent, Christian fanatics inadvertently taught their Muslims adversaries to act like extremists.
In chapter three, Mr. Gerges describes the strife inside al Qaeda. Several jihadists complained that bin Laden was dominated by too many Egyptians and that there was insufficient representation from Saudi Arabia or the other Arab countries. Instead of viewing themselves as the Ummah, (i.e.: worldwide Islamic community), they adopted the western notion of national identities.
The remaining chapters provide additional insight on the Muslim perspective. A fair amount of time is spent discussing the writings of Sayyid Qutb, an influential Muslim philosopher. The author also describes his visit to a Palestinian refugee camp at Ain-al-Hilweh where he interviewed Abu -Mohammed. Mohammed was subsequently killed in March 2003 by a car bomb.
The real merit of the book is that it provides a clear picture of how the jihadists view the world and America. Bottom line: this book provides a truly fascinating look into the minds of several jihadists. The reader will not be disappointed.
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Raw data about the violent sects of Islam ( donanderson12 )
Fawaz Gerges has written an easy to read description of his interviews with a number of Salifi / Wahabbi Muslims particularly the Egyptian Islamacist Kamal el-Said Habib.
These interviews and impressions provide an revealing glimpse into the minds of these potentially violent actors. I found the progression of thought over the years as well as the internal differences of opinion inside the Salifi sects to be fascinating.
As Gerges admits he initially did not understand the extent to which these violent actors were driven by a detailed reading of the Qu'ran. I hope there are few Western people in 2007 who still think these Jihadists are some crazy folks perverting a great religion. Rather they are trying to discard 13 centuries of revisionist scholarship and return this political religion to it's roots.
Gerges generally stays away from moralizing and his few attempts at evaluating policy prescriptions fall very flat. Never the less, this book is quite valuable if you have never probed the mind of a terrorist.
A further aspect is the extent of the support for terrorism within the Muslim world. It has always been larger than most Westerners have been willing to admit and is growing as they feel threatened by the West, Israel, and America in general. At the same time each accommodation by a Western culture is evaluated as weakness and an opportunity for more aggression.
This is definitely not a stand alone book on Egyptian or any form of Middle Eastern culture. For a more comprehensive history of recent Egyptian culture see Nonie Darwish's "Now they Call Me Infidel." For a very insightful glimpse of recent Lebanese culture and the civil war try Brigitte Gabriel's "Because They Hate."
"Journey of the Jihadist" complements these books in both countries by focusing on the potential terrorists, their similarities, and their differences.
When Gerges discusses Iraq he identifies it's utility to the Jihadists in obtaining recruits, but does not show the fall of Saddam as putting a significant funding source for terrorists out of business. He credits Iraq with pulling al Qaeda back to center stage and attracting significant funding for the terrorists. He fails to identify the role Iraq has in attracting and exterminating the more violent elements in the Middle East. His evaluation could be summed up by Ann Coulter's phrase "Damn that Bush! He's made people who hate our guts not like us."
Gerges historic references are disappointing as he normally gives the Jihadist version of the Crusades, the Lebanese civil war, and Jewish history without providing context or correction of their extremely myopic views. A reader unfamiliar with Middle Eastern history would come away misinformed.
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