Books : The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Council on Foreign Relations)
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 340.59
EAN: 9780691120454
ISBN: 0691120455
Label: Princeton University Press
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 200
Publication Date: March 23, 2008
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Sales Rank: 48640
Studio: Princeton University Press
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Product Description:
Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the bitter struggle in the Muslim world between the forces of religion and law and those of violence and lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East today. Now, in this penetrating book, Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the shari'a--the law of the traditional Islamic state--in the modern Muslim world.
Western powers call it a threat to democracy. Islamist movements are winning elections on it. Terrorists use it to justify their crimes. What, then, is the shari'a? Given the severity of some of its provisions, why is it popular among Muslims? Can the Islamic state succeed--should it? Feldman reveals how the classical Islamic constitution governed through and was legitimated by law. He shows how executive power was balanced by the scholars who interpreted and administered the shari'a, and how this balance of power was finally destroyed by the tragically incomplete reforms of the modern era. The result has been the unchecked executive dominance that now distorts politics in so many Muslim states. Feldman argues that a modern Islamic state could provide political and legal justice to today's Muslims, but only if new institutions emerge that restore this constitutional balance of power.
The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State gives us the sweeping history of the traditional Islamic constitution--its noble beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed promise it could hold for Muslims and Westerners alike.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I would like to encourage anyone who buys this book to at least do yourself the favor of reading some standard historical works related to Islamic history, especially those parts which Noah Feldman uses to support his thesis in this book. If Feldman had submitted this work to any peer-reviewed scholarly journal it would have been rejected, as it is filled with unsupported characterizations, historical inaccuracies and, where there is sourcing at all, endnotes which do not support his thesis. This work is so professionally negligent that I would encourage any potential employer to review this book and its documentation before hiring him.
In providing some examples, I'll break them down roughly into Feldman's outline:
"WHAT WENT RIGHT?" - pages 17-56 discuss how important Islamic law was to the "success" of Islamic states.
- On p. 21, Feldman argues that Muslims equate Islamic law with the Islamic state, and that support for Islamist parties derives from the fact that there is popular support for restoring Islamic law. Feldman cites no evidence to support this. In the Arab world there is strong support for maintaining Islamic law in family law and personal status, but this is already in place in secular states like Egypt and Syria. There have been no instances of popular pressure in favor of full implementation of Islamic law similar to those which often take place due to economic reasons or anti-American or anti-Israel protests. Where Islamist parties ... Read More
Rating:  -
It appears Feldman, has stayed true to his scholarly understanding of what Islam is all about, and has not been overtaken by present time demonization of Islam. In reality Islam is modification on Judaism , while accepting the best of Christianity. Saudis, Talaban and Alghadeh are not Islam. They are every thing that Islam negated. Gilded palaces of Saudi Family is not Islamic, restricting women and covering them head to toe is not Islamic, worshiping money is not Islamic. What you see in Islamic world today is Christianity before Renaissance . Islam needs to be rescued from corrupt leaders of the countries committing crimes in the name of Islam. Feldman is well aware of this and has done his research well.
Rating: -
Before I started reading through The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, tried to also read through several reviews of the book to get a sense of what criticisms were out there. The handful of reviews on Amazon tended to be negative and I made note of the criticisms levied against Feldman. After reading the book, I can't help but notice that Feldman is being criticized for things he didn't say or that the main point of the book is being misrepresented (at least by reviewers here).
First and foremost, this is a book about the history of shari'a law. The book is comprised of three parts, dealing with the heyday of shari'a law, its decline during and after the late Ottoman period, and prospects for the future. A theme that runs through the book is that when the scholarly class successfully acted as keepers of the shari'a, they provided an important check to executive power. Over time, due to the effects of reforms and the integration of the scholarly class into the ruling executive's regime, unbridled and unchecked executive power became the norm. The shari'a as a result, became less a force for legitimate rule, and more of a specialized area dealing with family/civil matters.
The main premise of the book is not that most people in the Middle East want a return to shari'a law. Even this is a problematic basis for attacking Feldman here because he clearly distinguishes between what the shari'a was during its time of prominence, and what most people think ... Read More
Rating:  -
Algerian leader Houari Boumédienne said at the United Nations in 1974:
"One day, millions of men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory."
Al-Jazeera's Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi, who is widely hailed as a moderate reformer in the West. said:
"Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor," and "the conquest this time will not be by the sword but by preaching and ideology."
A Saudi Sheikh, Muhammad bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-`Arifi, imam of the mosque of King Fahd Defense Academy, said:
Muslims "will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it"
Mullah Krekar, a jihadist who currently resides in Norway, although officials have been trying for years to get him out of the country, said:
"The number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes"
Omar Ahmad Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations: "Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam ... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in ... Read More
Rating: -
Repetitive, biased and sympathetic commentary about un-Islamic or so called Islamic regimes: caliphates, kingdoms and emirates of Sunni Muslim rulers of the past 14 centuries... False premises on which this whole thesis is based on: Sunni Scholars were custodian of Sharia, orienting the rulers implement the Islamic law. Not a fact, most the scholars of the time were not monitoring the rulers of course not; rather interpreting Sharia the way it best suits them and the ruler, like one of the Koranic injunctions: "obey those in authority among you", or the prophet's saying that "scholars are his heir". These so called scholars were accomplice most of the time, innovators, inventors of Hadiths (Prophet Mohammad's sayings and traditions), concocting false traditions of the prophet Mohammad to justify their rulers' illegitimate rights to the empires and caliphates...Very few Sunni scholars revolted or spoke against the rulers, most of the time it was Shia imams and their followers who did not give up speaking the truth and revolting against the tyranny and falsehood of the rulers of the time. The writer ignored all these and other facts of the Muslim history, rather most of the time his opinion is not substantiated with reasons, facts or examples at all...The writer also tried to place the present day government of Iran in the same league to which Taliban belongs, not a fair assessment...
He totally ignored the Muslim majority countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, some references to ... Read More
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