The Politics of Islamic Resurgence

This bibliography covers articles in jownals and daily newspapers,books, conference papers, and dissertations published in western languages(mainly English) during 1970-92. The attempted coverage of articlespublished in daily newspapers and conference papers, the last to bethought of and difficult to cover, is in itself admirable. However, whilethe limitation of "Through Western Eyes" is suitable for the three introductorychapters, it is not so for the bibliography, as most of the literaturecited is written by non-Muslims. In fact, only roughly one quarter (368)of all works cited (1405) are written by Muslims. This raises a questionabout the objective, although the compilers declare that it seeks to "presentthe Western intelligentsia-scholars, politicians, journalists-withMuslim comment and a bibliographic collection of Western articles thathave tackled the issue of Islamic revival" (p. ii).The book is divided into two parts: three introductory chapters andthe actual bibliography. The first part was written by the compilers individually"to provide substantive analysis as essays that reflect Muslim responsesto the precarious relationship with the West ... [and they] aimat crystallizing the frequently distorted image of political Islam and thelslamic revival" (p. ii).Chapter one, "The Western Pen: A Sword in Disguise?," deals withwestern media bias and the consequent distortion of Islam through a)reproducing photos that appear as covers of such famous magazines asThe Economist and Time and b) using slanted titles (i.e., "The Sword ofIslam" and "Muhammad's Militants: Spreading Islam by the SwordAgain")and special semantics (i.e., "fear," "impose," and "purge" as wellas "fundamentalist network" and "wealthy fundamentalist businessmen")to propagate paranoia about Islam. The chapter highlights, through quotationsfrom various sources, fabricated stories, subjective opinions, andgeneral unfamiliarity with Islam and tends to condemn western authorsand journalists for their role in formulating people's opinions. It concludesthat "Islamic 'fundamentalism' is an all-encompassing term. It is ...