No topic has captured the public imagination of late quite so dramatically as the specter of global jihadism. While much has been said about the way jihadists behave; their ideology remains poorly understood. As the Levant has imploded and millenarian radicals claim to have revived a Caliphate based on the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed; the need for a nuanced and accurate understanding of jihadist beliefs has never been greater. Shiraz Maher charts the intellectual underpinnings of salafi-jihadism from its origins in the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the jihadist insurgencies of the 1990s and the 9/11 wars. What emerges is the story of a pragmatic but resilient warrior doctrine that often struggles - as so many utopian ideologies do - to consolidate the idealism of theory with the reality of practice. His ground-breaking introduction to salafi-jihadism recalibrates our understanding of the ideas underpinning one of the most destructive political philosophies of our time by assessing classical works from Islamic antiquity alongside those of contemporary ideologues. Packed with refreshing and provocative insights; Maher explains how war and insecurity engendered one of the most significant socio-religious movements of the modern era.
#650880 in Books 2016-03-01 2016-04-28Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 6.10 x .90 x 9.10l; .0 #File Name: 0190490098322 pages
Review
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful. All-Around Excellence: Compelling Writing Important HistoryBy Vocab MaloneDorman's book is a must read for any student of the Hebrew-Israelite movement. Dorman uncovers important information related to the movement's history. He does a fine job of synthesizing the data into a coherent whole. He aptly demonstrates interwoven ideological strands and common points of contact; such as black Wesleyans; Pentecostalism; and even Anglo-Israelism.Dorman is clearly fascinated by the subject matter but still writes in a relatively objective manner. This helps the reader understand these movements with a certain level of empathy. Empathy is important; especially when dealing with fringe offshoots some people may causally write off as bizarre or "weird".This book will not give the reader much information into the current wave of BHIs; which began ascending over the past decade or so. It will give the reader insight into where these movements came from; but the current strand of BHI is less refined and more militant than the groups covered in this book.Still; this book can not be overlooked as a key piece in understanding the current crop of BHI groups.Hailing from the central corridor of Phoenix; Arizona;Vocab MaloneUrban Theologian Radio; hostRoosevelt Community Church; staffTalbot School of Theology; D. Min. Student9 of 12 people found the following review helpful. A different subject matterBy dominicA well written and passionately researched piece of history that is as interesting as it is unfamiliar. Black Jews. Kansas being a sort of Mecca. Another reason Blacks were so peripatetic. Who knew?1 of 3 people found the following review helpful. We've been here beforeBy Leib Gershon MitchellI really was inclined to not like this book right from the verbose introduction. But; it got better as the pages went on.I think that the whole book could be synopsized in probably three points.1. There are a whole bunch of ideas that exist somewhere at some point in time. There's no reason that ideas a; b; c exist as opposed to x; y; z. They just do.2. Some enterprising black Minister-- who probably wants to get out of doing some type of daily job (old theme and present theme) - - repackages them in such a way that he gets some followers. In these particular cases; there are elements of Judaism involved.3. There is a lot of the standard black affinity for the obsessive politicizing of E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.; and so there is no surprise that these religious experiences have heavy political overtones.That's it. I just saved you several hours and a good chunk of change to buy this book.There was quite a bit in each chapter (and really more than necessary; given that I could just synopsize the whole book in less than one paragraph and the book itself could have said what it had to say in 50 pages).To recapitulate:Chapter 1. We are introduced to the figure William Saunders Crowdy; who existed during the unsettled days of the Reconstruction as a traveling soapbox preacher. Black people in those times were suffering; and they needed someone charismatic who had something to say that they wanted to hear; and Crowdy cut his teeth going around the country learning his trade. And he just happened to be there at the right time and in the right place. Both the circumstances of the Reconstruction and William Saunders Crowdy were necessary to explain the genesis (so to speak) of this movement. The author; Dorman; is unequivocal that these black Hebrews started out as Judaism-plaited Christianity; and they still might be this to this day.Chapter 2. There is quite a bit in this chapter:i. There were black Jewish couplings; but most of them happened in the Caribbean Islands and were between Sephardic Jews and their African slaves. And the number of these couplings were very small in number. (These total population numbers are between 105 families to 1500 Jews-- and of course not all of them were married inter-racially.) Not anything large enough in scale to account for the large number that these Black Hebrews are claiming. (That was not explicitly stated; but it was the subtext the numbers that Dorman gave us. p. 63 noted something like 17 black Jews found over some huge number of of Caribbean islands.)ii. There were many fewer black Jewish couplings in the United States because Jews there behaved in the way of their host country and kept their distance from the slaves (when they were actually slaveholders; which was not often) and kept their distances from the blacks (when they were neighbors and customers). The author takes the trouble to note that about 25% of whites actually owned slaves-- which means that 75% did not. And so this is another way that there were even fewer chances to get Jewish blood into large numbers of blacks (again; as is claimed by the black Hebrews).iii. It seems that *everyone* thinks that they are a Lost Tribe of Israel. Dorman spends quite a few pages talking about the Anglo Saxon notion of Divine Election and thinking of themselves as one of the Lost Tribes (and believe me; they aren't the first ones). He seems to be implying (but does not come right out and say) that these black Hebrews are just *one more* in a long line of people who think that they are A Lost Tribe. He even comes up with a nifty term for this: "ideational rhizomes" (p. 58).Here is one point where the book fails. There is all this citing of anecdotal and historical evidence-- and there is genetic and DNA evidence that could have established this more easily and cut the length of this book in half.Chapter 3. This chapter ends up being more like a history of movements within 19th and 20th Century Evangelical Christianity -- of which Israelism was but one. It's just that the first ones were white and latter ones were black. Was it really news that a religious movement can start as one thing and morph into something different to what it started from? Or that it can start as one thing and be re-purposed into something different at a later date for different people? Who *wasn't* an Israelite?Chapter 4. More discussion of the repackaging of Things That We've Seen Before (and would see again)i. Repackaging of the Jewish concept of Divine Election (except for black people here and white people there). Hebrews originated in Nigeria and then immigrated to Palestine. But then the cast of characters in this book refer to the "beauty of the Ethiopian woman" (p. 128); even though Ethiopia is about 3600 miles away from Nigeria. But why let a little bit of geography get in the way? This foreshadows something that we would see again several decades later with the Black Egypt movement. Nevermind that there were a couple of thousand miles of Sahara desert between Egypt and black Africa. It just had to be because it was needed to be. (Also in both of these cases; current genetic evidence could put these tired theories to rest-- but won't.)ii. Obsessively turning every issue into something political. (p. 126). Marcus Garvey set up a whole shipping company that employed every single type of person in the industry except logistics and shipping. These various incarnations of Christianity morphing into some aberration of Judaism that were characterized in this book set up classes for (it seemed) everything EXCEPT skilled trades and job training. And we saw the same thing 30 years later with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. And then more of the same with the Nation of Islam. And then more of the same with a new incarnation of Islam. (Prislam.)Plus ca change......Chapter 5. This is mostly a discussion of Wentworth Arthur Matthew; the huckster. If there was a first Black Hebrew Israelite; he was it. But he didn't start out that way. He started out as some type of boxer. And then a bishop. And then later on appointed himself a Rabbi. And then there's ample evidence that he borrowed - is that the word ? - - a lot of his theology from the Masons. They even show him borrowing a lot of his things from the "Table of Fire" that was written by a person named Delaurence - - all the way down to the spelling mistakes. (This spelling mistake really is inexcusable; because it shows little understanding of even the Hebrew alphabet. Can you imagine someone ordaining himself as a "Rabbi" who does not even know the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet?) In short; Dorman - - intentionally or not - - does a very good job of making this Wentworth Arthur Miller and the entire movement look like just what they were (and are); which is a bunch of clowns with no serious intellectual foundation.Verdict: Not recommended at the price of more than $1
