Modern Islamist Movements, History, Religion and Politics.

• Author: Tamimi, Azzam
• Position: Book review

Modern Islamist Movements, History, Religion and Politics

By Jon Armajani

Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, 233 pages, ISBN 9781405117425, 19.99.

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THIS BOOK is an easy to read textbook that is structured to present readers with an historical overview of some of the prominent Islamic movements active in parts of the Muslim world, specifically in West and South Asia.

It comprises an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter is about Egypt's Islamism with the main focus on the Muslim Brotherhood. The second chapter is on the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel. A summary of the history of the conflict leads to a discussion of Hamas, Palestine's main Islamic group. The third chapter is on Saudi Arabia tracing the roots of Wahhabism to Najd. The fourth chapter is on Pakistan with an emphasis on Mawdudi and Jama'at-I Islami. And the fifth chapter is on Afghanistan and the rise of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and Alqaida.

Although the book is well structured, it suffers from two main caveats: it is not up to date and it lacks original research, relying mainly on secondary sources.

As a result of the first caveat the book, which has recently been published, falls short of taking into consideration the major developments in the regions under consideration over the past half decade or so, including the Arab Spring and its impact on Islamism as well as on regional and world politics. The author not only fails to consult some of the most relevant and most recent works on Islamic movements published during the decade that preceded his own book's publication, he seems to have made very little effort, if at all, to conduct first hand research at least to verify or question some of the arguments or analyses imported from secondary sources. In fact, in many instances, quotations from secondary sources remained unquestioned. Thus, his analysis of these sources is weak. Some of these sources had either their own circumstances or agendas and therefore may not have done justice to the topic under consideration.

As a result, the second caveat is that the author falls into the trap of copying quite a few inaccurate or questionable assertions. He only needed to directly consult primary sources or could have conducted basic field research to avoid such misundestanding Take these assertions, for instance, that appear in various parts of the book:"Palestinian suicide assaults against Israelis in the heart of Israel and in the West...