Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan,Islam And The West

Iran Husain has been writing about Pakistan for decades - his weekly column at Dawn has been a must read for however many decades he has been writing it!This book is in some ways a summation and clarification of what he has been writing for so many years. If you are a western reader looking to learn more about Pakistan's relationship with the west, than this book is written for you. If you live in Pakistan and have been following his columns for a few years, you already have the gist of the book.One issue I had with the book is it's sometimes seeming emphasis that the only reason the western world needs to interact with places like Pakistan is out of fear of terrorism if they don't help develop the country. Irfan is pushing the idea that just assassinating the few terrorists which pop up and attack the west isn't enough, the west has to develop and educate to deal with the root causes.What about good old humanity? In today's globalised world, the western world has a huge impact on poor third world countries - climate change, trade policies, technological advances, the lingering effects of colonialism - the world is being remade around the third world before most of their population has a chance to understand it. In a book titled faultlines, it seems to me that Irfan has overly emphasised the faults of Pakistan, and touched very lightly upon the western impact on the country, or delved deeper into what impact billions of dollars of military aid does to a very poor country, or the impact of sending food aid to a country which is still largely agricultural and have to compete with free grain shipments, or even that aid to Pakistan hasn't managed to build a single library or school, but generally ends up buying weapons from American companies. Pakistan is faulted for corruption, but not so much the fact that aid money doesn't even aim to educate or make better the lot of the poor - rather it aims to build up military capability so the better to help out American adventures in Afghanistan.At the end of the day, there are many faultlines in Pakistan's relationships with practically every other country out there, and this is a slim book taking a broad overview at Pakistan and the USA, not the entire western world, let alone India next door. I am looking forward to his next book!

The book includes a wonderful, extensive, honest, sincere and frank review of Muslim conflicts with many nations since 632 A.D. including the Byzantines, Persians, the Christian Crusades, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Irfan, who is one of the greatest writers in Pakistan, examines the history and previous conflicts from both Muslim and non-Muslim perceptions, and notes that there have been long periods of peaceful interactions between Islamic communities and western ones. He carefully examines the history of mutual-misunderstandings of the Middle East situation from many viewpoints.He writes beautifully about his thoughts and perceptions regarding present attitudes and tensions of Muslims and non-Muslims, including discussions of 9/11, Iran, the invasion of Iraq, Jihadist propagandist use of the internet, Muslim hatred, denial, delusions, Islamophobia, hopes, dreams, and understandings. He explains Muslim perceptions of the "Ummah" and why some Muslims believe they have a "License to Kill". He discusses why many Muslim idealists believe in jihab as a utopian dream for the triumph of Islam and the rebirth of the Caliphate, which will lead to a better world, just as Americans believe that democracy and globalization are forces for good. He discusses how Americans and Europeans view many similar conflicts and events, from their own perceptions.Irfan provides his perception as to what he terms "The Pakistani Paradox", where the original dream for a modern secular nation has been subverted,and explains why Pakistan and the U.S. have some, different perceptions and priorities in the Afghan conflict today. He paints a vivid picture of what Pakistan is like today!Irfan believes that Muslim idealists have been marginalized and are declining since the death of Bin Laden, and there is evidence and hope, that the Muslim/Western stereotype thinking and conflicts of the past, which seemed to be in a time warp, are closer to solution, particularly in light of the changing situation in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and/or other Muslim countries.From my view, Irfan's book is a magnificent discussion and analysis of Pakistan, Islam and the West, since 632 A.D., and provides a rare, glimpse of the situation from a truly knowledgeable individual. I highly recommend it to anyone having an interest in Islamic, Iraq, Afghanistan, and/or Pakistan history and/or conflicts.

The best book I ever read on the Islamic jihadists and the Pakistani military radicalism. Husain is tragically wrong about the imminent demise of the Jihadist. He wrote this book in 2011 and predicted Jihadists are a spent force. By 2014 we have both ISIS and the Caliphate. Oy vay.

After a long career as both Pakistani diplomat and journalist, Irfan Hussein is in just the right place to make sense of the increasingly negative view of the United States held by a good deal of the Muslim world. He explains both the religious and historical background for the hatred as well as the ironic fasination with America. But this is not a dry scholarly book, rather one where 21st century issues are well illustrated with stories from the authors own travels and experiences.

The conflict between the democratic polity and the Islamic ummahaffects half of humanity. Irfan Husain's book attempts to explain howthis conflict arose and why it does not end. It does not end becausethe main actors, unable to distill facts from their perceptions ofevents, remain locked in their 'narratives'. The author explains,with extraordinary clarity, what these narratives are and how theywere nourished. He is able to see where others fail because he hasthe rare facility of being able to empathize with both protagonists.At the same time, he has his sympathies, and his book is addressedmainly to the democratic polity.In abstract terms, one may describe the conflict as one between aworld-view that harks back to a mythical past, and one that wants toput the past behind (there is a lot to put behind) and to look to thefuture. Pakistan, having metamorphosed into a single-agenda statewhich aims to cut India down to size, finds inself in the middle ofthe action. The author's own conclusions, arrived at in two hundredand fifty tightly-argued pages, are rather more nuanced, and his keyanalytical tool is the concept of the Islamic ummah as developed by agroup of influential fundamentalist thinkers.At the risk of oversimplification, the contents of the book may begrouped into the following themes, which are not mutually exclusive:(i) historical analysis; (ii) current irritants; (iii) 9/11 and itsaftermath; (iv) the technology of 'jihad'; (v) the role of Pakistan;(vi) prognosis. I shall conclude by making a few remarks about thelast; for the rest, there is no substitute for reading the book.The author says that he was about to end the book in a deeplypessimistic mood when "something totally unexpected and almostmiraculous happened'': the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi on17 December 2010, which set in motion the events that have becomeknown, collectively, as the "Arab Spring''.Winston Churchill once said that while there is death, there isalways hope. Neither the Islamic fundamentalists nor the Americanneocons will change their world-views. But they will die some day,and it may be that the new generation will not inherit theirprejudices. The "Occupy Wall Street'' and similar movements in theU.S. and Britain may, together with the Arab Spring, be the harbingerof better times - provided that there is the collective will toresist the fightback.