Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
themselves. That an increasing minority come from
genuinely impoverished backgrounds in the last two
years (as he also demonstrates) only goes to show the
counter-productive effect Western activities have had.
There is still a key difference however, on the whole, to
the masses tacitly sympathising with atrocities through
desperation and those carrying them out themselves.
They attract a vast and increasing number of the
desperate poor in their countries, often due to the
crass stupidity and brutality of ‘infidel’ governments
of all colours. But this no more legitimises radical
Islamists than the unemployment caused by the neoliberal
capitalist policies pursued by New Labour
makes the BNP genuine champions of the working
poor of England. No-one on the left should see them
as anything other than what they are; evil bastards
given false validation by the machinations of the
more powerful. Cream off the followers, but don`t
even think about trying to ‘engage’ with the leaders.
Burke’s study is exemplary in its research, and
explains its extremely complex tale with some clarity
(the extensive indexes and glossaries help too).
It is however an undeniably dry read, a mixture of
BUY Jason Burke books online from and
the academic and reportage journalese. I must say, at
only 355 pages it still took me a very long time to get
through it. That’s probably my problem though and –
damned if you do and damned if you don’t – giving
a more vibrant style to a subject like this leaves the
author open to charges of sensationalism. It’s fair to
say though that this book is probably not best for the
completely uninitiated, or for someone not prepared
to give the subject their full undivided attention.
Part of this staid style comes from Burke’s admirable
neutrality of tone, which has won plaudits from
Chomsky to those much further to the right. He is
not out to make a point, but simply to document an
area he has reported on and studied for many years.
It’s only in the final chapter that Burke’s views – still
fairly cautious – are made clear. Namely, that only
the continuing resistance of the wider world Muslim
population to the minority teachings of zealots like
bin Laden, Zarqawi and their forbears al-Banna and
Qutb can possibly see them off. And that, whatever the
intentions, arresting the rapid growth this fanaticism
is seeing has been made much harder by the recent
actions of the West. �
137
More
Spike
email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z