Ed Husain, The Islamist, 2007

×

Ed Husain, The Islamist, 2007

Close

Ed Husain: The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left
Penguin Books Ltd (3 May 2007) | 304 pages | ISBN: 978-0141030432 | PDF | 71 MB

A truly outstanding book that works on so many levels, a personal journey, a review of contemporary Islamic life in Britain, a historical reference, an assessment of Islamic politics and many more. Husain's personal journey into extreme Islamic politics is quite frightening simply because it seemed so rapid and easy and also that extremist politics does seem to dominate the thinking of the young Muslims that he mixes with. If the type of thinking that he describes is half as dominant as this book seems to suggest then as a country we have a lot to worry about and more horrors like the attacks on London in 2005 are inevitable.

Having said that, I left this book with a new respect for the type of Islam that Husain eventually came to and indeed a respect for the picture of The Prophet that he paints. Stripped of the political manoeuvrings he shows Islam can be a compassionate and caring faith and one that has so much good in it that make the recent behaviours done it it's name all the more distasteful.

This book has given me more to think about than anything else I have read in the last couple of years.

This is a fascinating book. I read a broad selection of the criticisms of this book in an attempt to gauge its authenticity. Much of the criticism is about his "Muslim credentials" and his portrayal of specific Islamic groups and it is quite easy to understand why the said groups have a vested interest in attacking these portrayals. Whilst I do not doubt for one moment Ed Hussein portrayal, for me this is irrelevant to the central point of the book.

The book's central aim is to demonstrate how a young person born into a Western liberal democracy with no particular grievances against the people around them, can justify indiscriminately murdering the very people they have grown up with. This book achieves this and reveals how young naive minds can be twisted by an irrational hatred and shows how religion can be used to persuade otherwise good people to commit horrendously evil acts. We are given an insight into the minds of certain Islamic groups, who beliefs and aims are to destroy liberal democracy and to live in a Caliphate. This kind of Islam has been allowed to flourish because of the tenets of freedom of speech and religious tolerance, values that our society holds so dear. Ironically this a freedom that would certainly not be allowed in Islamic societies such as Saudi Arabia, or the society so desired by certain Islamic groups in this country.

As I have mention much of the criticism of this book is from Muslim writers, but there is also a fair bit from the liberal press. The book does quite clearly identify an Islamic threat and in doing so gives plenty ammunition to far right views. Certain liberal writers (and I consider myself a liberal) condemn the book, as they fear it could be used as a recruiting call to the far right, not because they necessarily disagree with the books opinions and statements.