Jihad: Book Review | Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (Yale Nota Bene S.)

Problem for Central Asia | Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (Yale Nota Bene S.) | Ahmed Rashid

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	• Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (Yale Nota Bene S.) Ahmed Rashid Yale University Press, 2003 - 372 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The root of civilization's problem.

This book is the most comprehensive source of information concerning Islam & Terrorism.

Jihad: Book Review

Mr Rashid does a great job introducing this region to a reader who is only familiar with this area through the news reports. Central Asia covers an area nearly the size of the contiguous USA west of the Mississippi excluding Texas. Kazakhstan to the north comprises about 2/3s of this area. The remaining four "Stans" are squeezed between the Caspian Sea to the west with its vast oil reserves, China to the east and Iran and Afghanistan to the south.

Within these chapters is an adequate, short, understandable introduction to the history of the area from the Mongol invasions through their subjugation by the communists. You are introduced to the geography and the political boundaries, which were drawn by Stalin, and the state of affairs in each country between the downfall of the USSR and 2001. You learn that communist style dictators rule all but one of these countries and all the countries are both repressed and impoverished.

The meat of the story seems to begin with the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the USA's efforts to thwart that assault. Our work with the resistance fighters through Pakisitan brought the outside world into central Asia for the first time in 60 years. With the defeat of the USSR in Afghanistan and the USSR's collapse, these countries were plunged unprepared into the modern world. The continuing repressive natures of their governments coupled with the arrival of fanatical Muslim missionaries soon lead to the birth of several Islamic fundamentalist organizations.

The Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), Hizb ut Tahir (HT) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are the main focus of most of the book. Each of these organizations aims at overthrowing the current governments in the area and replacing them with some form of repressive Islamic state; however, none of the groups is particularly clear on what that would be. I think that Mr. Rashid does a very good job at portraying these organizations as destructive, reactionary groups with no plan for the world after they win.

Finally, the strategic concerns of Russia, China and the USA are dealt with and how they relate to Central Asia. I would like to point out to future readers that whenever the USA's influence in the region is mentioned America is indicted because its military and economic aide is not tied to political reform; regional leaders are just encouraged to reform. However, no such concern is ever once raised by Mr. Rashid when he discusses the influence and aide of Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, any European Country or any other player in Central Asia. Also, not once in the book is there ever any discussion of the responsibility that the residents of each of the "Stans" have for the maintenance and good government of their own lands.

All in all this is a well written and worthwhile book. It covers the subject area briefly, but well. I came away from this book with a much better understanding of this region, its problems and what we will be facing for many years to come.

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Problem for Central Asia

The book is tedious, but comprehensive and does explain a lot that has been said about the region. It offers confirmation of many statements about the region, usually those offered without reference. Recommended for anyone interested in "Fundalmentalist Islam" and/or the politics of the former Soviet Uniion.

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Valuable and Important Book

Jihad by Ahmed Rashid provides an explanation for the rise of militant Islam in Central Asia. I purchased this book because I enjoyed another of Rashid's works, Taliban, and because it was on sale. Within the first few pages, the significance of Rashid's book is obvious. For one, the author is an objective journalist (that term should be redundant but, sadly, it isn't) with first-hand experience in the region. And, more importantly, Jihad was largely written before 11 September 2001, before our national interest in religious extremism became colored by emotion and an agenda to support USA military efforts in the Middle East.

As argued by Rashid, the seeds of today's radical Islamic movement in Central Asia were planted by Stalin. The present borders of those republics -- Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan -- were drawn by that dictator explicitly to fragment ethnic allegiances, to try and force the local populations to become homogenized (but 2nd class) members of the Soviet empire. Collectivization caused further resentment, as did Bolshevik suppression of Islam. But all the latter accomplished was to push religious practice underground and give the people a rallying point to come together against the government.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, leaving former Communist Party members as presidents of the five republics, the equilibrium changed. The government was still unpopular and oppressive, and Islam was still officially to be suppressed, but the governments had lost their power to achieve their objectives. With the repeal of Soviet control came the withdrawal of Soviet forces and resources. Militant Islamic groups, suddenly free(r) to seek their own agendas, rose up to divide and topple the reigning, impotent regimes. Rashid works systematically through various movements in the region and their histories, but he pays special attention to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and its connection with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Jihad by Ahmed Rashid is a valuable and important book for anyone that wants to understand how the rise of militant Islam is not a new phenomenon but a continuation -- an effect -- of the Cold War.

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Ahmed Rashid, who explained Afghanistan's Taliban regime in his previous work, "Taliban", here turns his skills as an investigative journalist to the five Central Asian republics adjacent to Afghanistan. In tracing the history of Central Asia and explaining the political climate, Rashid demonstrates that it is a region we ignore at our peril.

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