Clash of Fundamentalisms Crusades Jihads & Modernity

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.

A wide-ranging, often brilliant collection of essays ... a compelling point of departure for further study of Islam. (Kathy Deacon, Village Voice)

Ali locates the flexible, skeptical, hedonistic traditions within Islamic thinking... whom the fundamentalists wish to silence. (Fred Halliday, The Los Angeles Times Book Review)

The "Ali left" attacks the troika of imperialism, the petro-Sheikhs and the dissident jihadis....it fights every kind of fundamentalism. (Vijay Prashad, ZNET)

There is no ambiguity in this man's world... Ali belongs to the root-causes party. (Washington Post Book Review, Fouad Ajami)

[A] very nearly perfect book. (John Nichols, Capital Times)

Ali's style is vigorous, his narrative compelling. (Karen Armstrong, The Times [London])

Urbane, highly intelligent and vividly written. One hopes this fine study will earn no fatwa. (Richard Sennett, Times Literary Supplement)

An outstanding contribution to our understanding of the nightmare of history from which so many people are struggling to awake. (The Nation)

The current antiwar movement would benefit from his historical perspective, ideological clarity, and humor. (San Francisco Bay Guardian)

Timely and important...[Ali] is lucid, eloquent, literary, and painfully honest, as he dissects both Islamic and Western fundamentalism. (Howard Zinn)

Tariq Ali puts the events of September 11 into sweeping historical perspective, as he dissects both Islamic and Western fundamentalism.

Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than a dozen books on world history and politics—including Pirates of the Caribbean, Bush in Babylon, The Clash of Fundamentalisms and The Obama Syndrome—as well as five novels in his Islam Quintet series and scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of the New Left Review and lives in London.