The Clash of Fundamentalisms

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Verso
ISBN: 9781859846797
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
The inviolability of the American mainland, breached on 9/11/2001 for the first time since 1812, led to extravagant proclamations by the pundits. It was a sudden menace confronting the twenty-first century, an event of unprecedented dimensions, a new world-historical turning point. Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: ‘Allah’s revenge’, ‘God is on Our side’, ‘God Bless America’. The ‘war against terror’ is a clash of fundamentalisms, religious versus imperial. Each is honored by time-honored features – a shameless use of disproportional military power by one and a carefully targeted fanaticism by its Other. The two forces are hardly equal. One is a product of despair, the other is an empire, whose ability to go to war is a chilling reminder of its place in the world. Contemporary politics is conducted and presented in the elitist style of intelligence agencies: disinformation, false information, exaggeration of enemy strength and capability, explanation of a TV image with a brazen lie and censorship. The aim is to delude and disarm the citizenry. Everything is either over-simplified or reduced to a wearisome incomprehensibility. This wide-ranging book blends history, literature, politics and autobiography to challenge the conformist culture of our times. Ali argues that many of the values proclaimed by the Enlightenment retain their relevance, while portrayals of the American Empire as a new emancipatory project are fatally misguided.

The Clash of Fundamentalisms

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1789608538
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 611

Book Description
The aerial attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, a global spectacle of unprecedented dimensions, generated an enormous volume of commentary. The inviolability of the American mainland, breached for the first time since 1812, led to extravagant proclamations by the pundits. It was a new world-historical turning point. The 21st century, once greeted triumphantly as marking the dawn of a worldwide neo-liberal civilization, suddenly became menaced. The choice presented from the White House and its supporters was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism or be damned. Tariq Ali challenges these assumptions, arguing instead that what we have experienced is the return of History in a horrific form, with religious symbols playing a part on both sides: 'Allah's revenge,' 'God is on Our Side' and 'God Bless America.' The visible violence of September 11 was the response to the invisible violence that has been inflicted on countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine and Chechnya. Some of this has been the direct responsibility of the United States and Russia. In this wide-ranging book that provides an explanation for both the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and new forms of Western colonialism, Tariq Ali argues that many of the values proclaimed by the Enlightenment retain their relevance, while portrayals of the American Empire as a new emancipatory project are misguided.

Speaking of Empire and Resistance

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781920769444
Category : Imperialism
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
This series of interviews brings Tariq Ali insights into a wide range of topics which are currently dominating headlines around the world. He speaks out on the crisis in the Middle East, the war on terror, the resurgent militarism of the American Empire, the continuing significance of imperialism in the 21st century and much more..

Nothing Sacred

Author: Betsy Reed
Publisher: Nation Books
ISBN: 9781560254508
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 427

Book Description
Collects feminist writings from a range of international contributors on religious fundamentalism and women's oppression, citing the causes of violence against women in Muslim countries and in the west while considering its role in current and historical events. Original.

The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839768177
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
The occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient. Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq, Afghanistan became the “good war.” But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban waited out the NATO contingents. Today, with the collapse of the puppet regime in Kabul, what does the future hold for a traumatised Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country? Tariq Ali has been following the wars in Afghanistan for forty years. He opposed Soviet military interven- tion in 1979, predicting disaster. He was also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, Operation Enduring Freedom. In a series of trenchant commentaries, he has described the tragedies inflicted on Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions have proved accurate. The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold brings together the best of his writings and includes a new introduction.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480448532
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
“Tariq Ali captures the humanity and splendor of Muslim Spain . . . real history as well as fiction . . . a book to be relished and devoured” (The Independent). The savagery of the Reconquest tore apart the world of the Banu Hudayl family. For the doomed Muslims of late-fifteenth-century Spain, the approaching forces of Christendom bring not peace but the sword. Capturing the brutality of a war both military and cultural—and the price paid by the innocent—Tariq Ali opens his Islam Quintet with a harrowing and profound historical fiction.

Fundamentalisms and the Media

Author: Stewart M. Hoover
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1441183574
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
The turn of the twenty-first century has seen an ever-increasing profile for religion, contrary to long-standing predictions of its decline. Instead, the West has experienced what some call a 'realignment' of religion where it persists in conjunction with other institutions and structures. Outside the West, religion is an ever more prominent force in social and political movements of both reform and retrenchment. Across these contexts, no issue in religion is of as much concern as fundamentalism - or rather the fundamentalisms within various traditions - which are seen to be fomenting religious, social, ethnic, and political tension and conflict. The contributions to this volume represent the first effort to look at 'fundamentalisms' and 'the media' together and address the resulting relations and interactions from critical perspectives of history, technology, geography, and practice. The result lays important groundwork for scholarship on these new and increasingly important phenomena.

Bush in Babylon

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Verso
ISBN: 9781844675128
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
In this passionate and provocative book, Ali provides a history of Iraqi resistance against empires old and new, and argues against the view that sees imperialist occupation as the only viable solution to bring about regime-change in corrupt and dictatorial states.

The Duel

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416561021
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the only Islamic state to have nuclear weapons, under military dictatorship for 33 of its 50 years in existence. Its 1000-mile border with Afghanistan is the likely hideout of Osama bin Laden--yet it is the linchpin in the United States' war on terror. With increasingly bold attacks by Taliban supporters in the border regions threatening to split the Pakistan army, with the only political alternatives as corrupt as the regime they seek to replace, and with a newly radicalized movement of lawyers testing its strength as champions of the rule of law, the chances of sustained stability in Pakistan look slim. Tariq Ali, long acknowledged as a leading commentator on Pakistan, combines deep understanding of the country with extensive firsthand research and unsparing political judgment to weigh the prospects of those contending for power today.--From publisher description.

A Sultan in Palermo

Author: Tariq Ali
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 178168930X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
The fourth novel in Tariq Ali’s ‘Islam Quintet’ charts the life and loves of the medieval cartographer Muhammed al-Idrisi. Torn between his close friendship with the sultan and his friends who are leaving the island or plotting a resistance to Norman rule, Idrisi finds temporary solace in the harem; but his conscience is troubled... A Sultan in Palermo is a mythic novel in which pride, greed, and lust intermingle with resistance and greatness. It echoes a past that can still be heard today. Praise for the Islam Quintet: “A richly woven tapestry that even before its completion meritscomparison with Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo trilogy.” Kirkus Reviews