The Two Faces of Islam - Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism

Zusatztext “Schwartz provides much valuable information and insight. [His] case against Saudi Arabia and its foreign policy is irrefutable.” – The Wall Street Journal “A major and welcome contribution on a topic that will only become more relevant. It is must reading for anybody who wants to know what exactly we are facing in the war on terror.” — National Review “A powerful indictment of Saudi-Wahhabi duplicity. . . . A valuable study of a religious culture that could well end up in open conflict with the West (if it’s not already).” — The Washington Post “The urgency for Americans is to place the news in context! and toward that end there is no better guide than Stephen Schwartz. . . . No writer has done more to expose Wahhabism than Mr. Schwartz has.” — Dallas Morning News Informationen zum Autor Stephen Schwartz is an author and journalist who has been Washington bureau chief for the Jewish Forward and an editorial writer for the Voice of America. Prior to that he was an interfaith activist in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. His previous books include studies of the Spanish Civil War, the radical culture of California, and the Kosovo War. He lives in Washington, D.C. Klappentext Since its formation in 1932, Saudi Arabia has been ruled by two interdependent families. The Al Sa'uds control politics and the descendants of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab impose Wahhabism—a violent, fanatical perversion of the pluralistic Islam practiced by most Muslims. Stephen Schwartz argues that Wahhabism, vigorously exported with the help of Saudi oil money, is what incites Palestinian suicide bombers, Osama bin Laden, and other Islamic terrorists throughout the world. Schwartz reveals the hypocrisy of the Saudi regime, whose moderate facade conceals state-sponsored repression and terrorism. He also raises troubling questions about Wahhabi infiltration of America's Islamic community and about U.S. oil companies sanitizing Saudi Arabia's image for the West. This sharp analysis and eye-opening expose illuminates the background to the September 11th terrorist attacks and offers new approaches for U.S. policy toward its closest ally in the Middle East. Leseprobe Chapter 1 SNOW IN THE DESERT: Muhammad and the Message of Islam Islam came to humanity as the third great expression of the monotheistic vision that had begun with Abraham, after Judaism and Christianity. But as we consider its history, we may also see a difference between Islam and the revelations of the One God that preceded it. Judaism is based on the lives of Prophets separated from modern Jews by thousands of years, who are honored although their historical existence cannot be verified. Many Jews and other Westerners today view the Hebrew Prophets as mythical or symbolic creations of a literary imagination. Christianity centers on the life and works of a gentle rabbi, Jesus, who was incapable of deceit or violence. But no document proves whether or not there was a historical Jesus. By contrast, Muhammad was a figure whose existence is undoubted except by the most extreme skeptics. Further, Muhammad’s life is much closer to that of an ordinary individual, living at any time or place, than those of Moses and Jesus. Nor are accounts of Muhammad dominated by the otherworldly, supernatural aspects that suffuse Jesus’ life. Muslims say that Moses was a mighty Prophet but did not see the Promised Land, while Jesus was a great Prophet but was raised up to heaven almost at the beginning of his mission (Muslims believe Judas was crucified in Jesus’ place). Muhammad, however, became a ruler of men and women. Unfortunately, Muhammad has an evil reputation among Westerners that also sets him apart from Moses and Jesus. Jews and Christians reject Muhammad as the apostle of a religion they fear. Jews deny that Jesus was Messiah, but many among them have co...

Product details

• Authors: Stephen Schwartz
• Publisher: Anchor Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 09.09.2003
• EAN: 9781400030453
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-3045-3
• No. of pages: 346
• Dimensions: 131 mm x 203 mm x 19 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book