REVIEWS There have been jihads on three CAN THE JIHAD BE TAMED? continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe, though Fregosi only concentrates on jihad in the West. The basis for jihad A history of holy blood-letting may be found in the pages of the Koran, which decrees death to anyone who blasphemes Islam, or stands in Paul Kurtz its way. The Koran, he says, is unique as a religious-ideological document, Jihad in the West: Muslim Conquest from the Seventh to the Twenty- for it is willing to use the sword to First Centuries, by Paul Fregosi (Amherst, N.Y. Prometheus Books, realize its dreams. After the death of 1998, ISBN 1-57392-247-1) 442 pp., cloth $29.95. Muhammad in 632, Islam exploded, first by conquering neighboring coun- tries in the Middle East, and then by expanding westward, seizing all of here were special circumstances have been Why I Am Not a Muslim by Christian North Africa. In 80 years its that surrounded the decision by Ibn Warraq (a pseudonym), and the domain extended from Spain on the TPrometheus Books to publish first English translation published in Atlantic, which it conquered by 711, all this book. Jihad in the West had been the United States of Taslima Nasrin’s the way to the Euphrates in India, and accepted for publication by the well- Shame. Nasrin also suffered a fatwah eventually to Asia and Indonesia. known British publisher Little Brown, in Bangladesh, but fortunately she was Fregosi describes in graphic details a contract had been issued, and a fairly able to escape to Sweden. how no mercy was shown to those large advance of $25,000 was paid. This series is especially interested who opposed their path to domination, After being announced and indeed set in encouraging “koranic criticism,” i.e., how recalcitrant non-Muslim popu- in galleys, the publishers withdrew using the best scholarship to examine lations were butchered, their women the book and canceled the contract. the claims of the Koran. These books raped, and its people sold into slavery. The author, a Frenchman now living attempt to demythologize traditional Conquering Islamic armies have been in London, had written the widely views of divine inspiration for the ferocious, believing that it was Allah’s acclaimed book, Dreams of Empire: Koran. Other books in the series deal will, but they also were stimulated by Napoleon and the First World War, with important topics, such as how the the promise of plunder, pillage, and 1792–1815. Fregosi maintains that the Koran was written, who the historical women, for those who were victorious. British publisher reneged on his con- Muhammad was, etc. In the long run, For those who were not, an Islamic par- tract only out of fear that there would Prometheus hopes that this series may adise awaited them in which warriors be reprisals by Muslims. On account help to mute fundamentalist literalism who ended up in heaven had 72 virgins of the fatwahs issued against Salman and also provide a more liberal meta- and eternal bliss! Rushdie for his Satanic Verses and of phorical and symbolic interpretation of Fregosi observes that the Western the demonstrations against the publish- the Koran. world has forgotten this bloody aspect er for having published it, and also of Jihad in the West is in many ways of jihad. Large parts of Europe were the murders of one and possibly two a terrifying book. It details the nature invaded and occupied—Spain for translators of the book, Fregosi was of Islam’s bloody holy wars, from 800 years, Portugal 600, Greece 500, unable to find another publisher willing the early days in the seventh centu- Sicily 300, and how Serbia, Bulgaria, to take it on. ry under the tutelage of Muhammad, Romania, Hungary were occupied Prometheus Books leaped to the who used the sword to conquer all for centuries. Originally led by the occasion since it has been commit- of Saudi Arabia, down to the present Arabs and Moors, Islam penetrated ted to publishing books that critical- time. Fregosi maintains that “the jihad Western Europe—France, Italy, and ly examine religious claims, includ- is essentially a permanent state of hos- as far as Vienna and the German bor- ing many books on biblical criticism. tility that Islam maintains against the ders. Although the first Islamic empires Prometheus decided to undertake Jihad rest of the world. The purpose of the were originally a creation of the Arabs, in the West as part of its Islamic Studies jihad,” he asserts, “. is to expand they later were under the aegis of the series. Previous books in the series and extend Islam until the whole world Persians, then the Mongols who over- is under Muslim rule” (p. 20). “It is a ran Russia and India. The Ottoman Paul Kurtz is President of Prometheus religious duty,” Fregosi insists, “which empire, under the leadership of the Books and Editor-in-Chief of FREE the devout Muslim has to perform if Turks, captured Constantinople in INQUIRY. called upon.” 1453—the capital of Byzantine culture free inquiry 62 REVIEWS and Christianity, which was renamed jihad. However, he warns that since of secularization and democratization Istanbul. The Ottomans later occupied decolonization, the jihad is again erupt- will enable humanist ideals of freedom Armenia, Greece, the Balkans, the ing in Bosnia, Albania, Afghanistan, of conscience and tolerance to pre- Middle East, and other territories. The Algeria, Palestine, and Lebanon as vail and to spread back to the Islamic history of jihad is the history of unbe- Islamic fundamentalists again resort to homelands. lievable carnage and holocaust, where holy wars to achieve their aims. Fregosi The best-case scenario is that execution and beheading, torture and says that it has now taken on new forms, Islamic culture, now 14 centuries old, cruelty were systematically carried out. as terrorists bomb Westerners in Egypt, will undergo a modern-day renais- Fregosi evidently sympathizes with Paris, the World Trade Towers, and sance, such as existed in Cordoba, the Christian West in his account of Lockerby. The Hezbollah in Palestine Spain, in the twelfth century, when Muslim religious hatred and intoler- and Lebanon and fundamentalists in Muslims lived in peace with Christians ance, though at times he describes the Iran and Iraq have sacrificed innocent and Jews. The Universal Declaration ferocity of the Christian armies, such as victims in the name of Allah. These of Human Rights, which was pro- his account of the long wars for control latest symptoms of brutality are not claimed fifty years ago, applies to all of Spain, and the massacres of Muslims new, but must be read in the context of people on the planet. Will our Muslim in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox coun- the history of the jihad; the only way friends and colleagues recognize that tries. But he is strangely silent about it can be quelled is by a fundamen- it applies to them, and that they need the Inquisition of 1492, the brutal wars tal transformation of its theology of to pay full respect to non-Muslims between Catholics and Protestants, and destruction—a fairly pessimistic view. and nonbelievers they encounter? This the Spanish war against the Indians of One may ask, can Islam in the future is a precondition for any possibility South America. He states that there is be tamed, so that it becomes part of the for a peaceful and harmonious future. a difference between Christianity— world community and abandon jihad? Hopefully more liberal interpretations which in the name of Jesus at least Jihad reflects the attitude of the sev- of the Koran may contribute to a more preached principles of love (but may enth century; it can hardly continue its humane and tolerant attitude, much not have so practiced these princi- militancy in the modern world. There the same as biblical criticism has ples)—and Islam, which preached and are almost 1 billion Muslims through- enhanced the liberalization of Western practiced hatred in the name of Allah. out the world, and tens of millions now Christianity. fi Fregosi observes that Western colo- reside in peace throughout the Western nial expansionism in the Middle East, world, in Europe and America. Most Asia, and Africa, and the defeat of the are law-abiding and loyal citizens of Ottoman empire had exhausted the their countries. We hope that the forces few dramatists who charts the effects DAVID HARE: of money on people’s lives—the nit- ty-gritty of finance that we all know ACTS OF DISCOVERY about, but which rarely reaches art. At the core of his work, at the center of these facets, are the interpersonal All-too-human plays relationships that must form the heart of successful stage plays. Jim Herrick The dramatic beginnings of Hare’s career lie in the touring theater of the Amy’s View (1997), Plenty (1996). late sixties. Together with Howard Brenton he wrote Fanshen, a play about the revolution in China: influ- avid Hare is a contemporary characters are clearly placed in time enced by Brecht it brought a coolness British playwright with a and clearly move through time—the to upheaval and destruction that avoid- Dwide humanist streak, a strong Second World War, the post-war afflu- ed judgment. He has said that by “plac- sense of recent history, and yet a deep ence, the “revolutionary” sixties, the ing people’s sufferings in a historical consciousness of the need to resolve Thatcherite era, the melange of hope context . he can help to explain issues, to live fully in the present. His and disappointment of the nineties. their pain.” Hare then wrote plays His plays are not political diatribes, that were performed in mainstream Jim Herrick is the Editor of New but there is always an awareness of the theaters, reaching the stamp of success Humanist.