Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Lllusion of an Islamic State

In Chasing a Mirage, Tarek Fatah Writes: Islamists argue that the period following the passing away of Muhammad was Islam's golden era and that we Muslims need to re-create that caliphate to emulate that political system in today's world. I wish to demonstrate that when Muslims buried the Prophet, they also buried with him many of the universal values of Islam that he had preached. The history of Islam can be described essentially as the history of an unending power struggle, where men have killed each other to claim the mantle of Muhammad. This strife is a painful story that started within hours of the Prophet closing his eyes forever, and needs to be told. I firmly believe the message of the Quran is strong enough to withstand the facts of history. It is my conviction that Muslims are mature and secure in their identities to face the truth. This is that story.

Advance Praise for Chasing a Mirage:

"Tarek Fatah has written a provocative and challenging book which is a must read for anyone who cares about these issues." - Janice Gross Stein

"Chasing a Mirage is an extremely valuable contributing to the fight by progressive Muslims against Islamist fascism. This book should be required reading for the Left in the West who have mistakenly started believing that Islamists represent some sort of anti-imperialism." -Farooq Tariq

"Fatah argues passionatley for universalism instead of exclusivism, integration instead of ghettoism, and makes a powerful appeal for the silent majority of Muslims to speak out before it is too late. This work of courage and daring needs to be read widely." - Pervez Hoodbhoy

"This fascinating work by brave and bri8lliant tarek Fatah is simultaneously thought-provoking, instructive and enlightening for laymen and scholars, Muslims and non-Muslim...an invaluable and rare addition to the corpus of Islamic literature in the post-9/11 world, a bold step towards Islamic Reformation and Enlightenment." - Taj Hashmi

"Tarek Fatah's is a voice that needs to be heard. Canada needs a healthy, reasoned debate about the issues he is raising, and indeed so does the world." - Bob Rae

"This fascinating work by brae and brilliant Tarek Fatah is simultaneously thought-provoking, instructive and enlightening for laymen and scholars, Muslim and non-Muslim... an invaluable and rare addition to the corpus of Islamic literature in the post-9/11 world, a bold step towards Islamic Reformation and Enlightenment." - Taj Hashmi

"Tarek Fatah's is a voice that needs to be heard. Canada needs a healthy, reasoned debate about the issues he is raising, and indeed so does the world." - Bob Rae, Member of Parliament, Canada

In Chasing a Mirage, Tarek Fatah opens a window on the Muslim world that reveals a blighted landscape. Fatah, a Canadian Muslim born in Pakistan, argues that Islam has been hijacked by radicals who falsely invoke the Quran and Prophet Muhammad for their own political purpose that offends the spirit of Islam.

At the heart of the matter is the duplicity of imams who decry the West for the ills that affect Muslims. Such invective deflects the failure of most Muslim countries to offer a modicum of freedom, human rights and equality--not ideas that are the purview of western countries, but indeed are inherent in the spirit of Islam. Where did things take such a wrong turn?

In the author's assessment, the Quran did not prescribe that Islam should take on a political form--an entity that is the Islamic State. Yet in the aftermath of the Prophet's death, two streams of Islam emerged. One was political and imperial, seeking power and domination, reverberating though the ages and resulting in war bloodshed among Muslim brothers. The other Islam was spiritual, which unleashed the human spirit, triggering an age of enlightenment that once was the hallmark of science, literature, music, and mathematics. The author suggests that the crashing end to Islam's era of intellectual supremacy was a direct result of political Islam inflicting a crushing defeat on the spirit of Islam.

In a global movement, Islamists have worked to establish the Islamic State, while Muslims continue to be sacrificed for a cause that s rooted in deceit and delusion.

Can a millennia of aggression be brought to a halt? Chasing a Mirage is unequivocal in its answer and in its remedy to end political violence that is inimical to Islam and its state of grace and peace. The book urges Muslims to give up on the Islamic State and strive for the state of Islam.

Tarek Fatah is host of the weekly TV show, the Muslim Chronicle, and a frequent contributor to the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the National Post. A lifelong critic of Islamic extremism, Fatah has earned the ire of Islamists. For his work and perseverance as a writer and broadcaster, despite numerous death threats and intimidation, the National Press Club of Canada awarded Fatah the 2007 Press Freedom Award. Earlier, Macleans magazine named Fatah as one of 50 people it described as "Canada’s most well known and respected personalities." In 2002, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for his work in the community.

Born in Pakistan, Fatah was a left-wing student leader in the late 1960s, during which time he was twice imprisoned by successive military dictatorships. He started his career in journalism with the now defunct Karachi newspaper, the SUN, before moving to the Pakistan television network PTV where he won a number of awards for his work as a pioneering investigative reporter. After yet another coup in 1977, Fatah moved to Saudi Arabia where he worked for 10 years in the advertising industry while observing up-close the working of Wahabbi Islam and its global agenda, before migrating to Canada in 1987.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Fatah founded the Muslim Canadian Congress, a secular Muslim organization dedicated to the separation of religion and state, opposition to Islamic extremism, and an end to what it describes as “gender apartheid” that is practised in many parts of the Muslim community.

Tarek Fatah lives in Cabbagetown, Toronto with Nargis Tapal, his wife of 33 years, and their two daughters Natasha and Nazia.

Preface.

Part One: The Illusion.

Chapter 1. Politics and theology of Islamic States.

Chapter 2. Pakistan-Failure of an Islamic State.

Chapter 3. Saudi Arabia-Sponsor of Islamic States.

Chapter 4. Iran-The Islamic State.

Chapter 5. Palestine-Future Islamic State?

Part Two: The Genesis.

Chapter 6. The Prophet is Dead.

Chapter 7. Medina-The Politics of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.

Chapter 8. Damascus-Islam's Arab Empire.

Chapter 9. Cordoba-Islam's European Venture.

Chapter 10. Baghdad-Islam Embraces the Persians.

Part Three: The Consequences.

Chapter 11. Sharia-God's Law of Man's Flaw?

Chapter 12. Jihad-Permanent War or Continuous Struggle?

Chapter 13. Hijab-Islamic Piety or Political Islam?

Chapter 14. The Islamist Agenda in the West.

Afterword by Husain Haqqani.

Acknowledgements.

Manufacturer's Warranty.

Notes.

Selected Bibliography.

Index.