Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

The Clash of Fundamentalisms

Crusades, Jihads and Modernity
Tariq Ali
1. Tariq Ali has been a prominent figure in the anti-war movement and The Clash of
Fundamentalisms gives vent to his anti-imperialism. Targeting particularly "the most
dangerous fundamentalism today, the mother of all fundamentalisms, The US
empire as his argument. Tariq explains how it has used the tragedy of attacks on
America on the 11th of September 2001 to continue to pursue their own agenda.
In his Introduction, the author sites that, politically, the United States decided early on
to use the tragedy as a moral lever to re-map the world. Militarily, its bases now cover
every continent. There is a US military presence in 120 of the 189 member states of
the United Nations. (Introduction, Page xiii. Ali, 2002)
In his acknowledgements, Tariq Ali explains that this book is an attempt to explain
why much of the world doesnt see the American Empire as good. In the clash
between a religious fundamentalism itself the product of modernity and an
imperial fundamentalism determined to discipline the world, it is necessary to
oppose both and create a space in the world of Islam and the West in which freedom
of thought and imagination can be defended without fear of persecution or death.
Tariq wanted to write of the setting, of the history that preceeded the 9/11 attacks, of a
world that is treated virtually as a forbidden subject in an increasingly parochial that
celebrates the virtues of ignorance, promotes a culture of stupidity and extols the
present as a process without an alternative, implying that we all live in a consumerist
paradise (Page 1, Ali, 2002)
He wants to ask and explain why so many people in non-Islamic parts of the world
were unmoved by the attacks, and why so many celebrated? He is careful to ensure
that the necessity to explain these reactions does not mean justifying the atrocity of 11
September. It is an attempt to move beyond the simplistic argument that they hate us
because they are jealous of our freedoms and our wealth. This is simply not the case
(Page 3, Ali, 2002) He puts US propaganda into perspective by questioning why the

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

attacks gained the most Media attention of any bombing or attack in history, why the
3,000 fatalities as a result of that day are more important than the 250,000 casulty rate
the US State Department deemed acceptable before launching what the Pentagon
boasted as the greastest percision bombing aerial assault in history (Weinberger,
2005. Page 65) on Iraq. (Introduction, Page xiv. Ali, 2002)
Ali rhetorically questions why there is never any danger of any US politician or
military commander being charged with war crimes, and answers that the Empire
situates itself above International law. (Introduction, Page xiv. Ali, 2002)
Written before the recent bloody assault on Iraq, Tariqs book attacks Bush and Blairs
justifications for the war; and, anticipating current arguments over weapons of mass
destruction, Tariq mockingly declares that all "the talk of weapons of mass
destruction consists of fairy tales designed to frighten the children/citizens at home".
Ali claims that few in Europe believe that Iraq poses a threat to any other country. As
the world now knows, Iraq had no such arsenal, and posed no threat to the US
(Weber, 2006) Ali cleverly puts things into perspective by citing that the last time Iraq
used chemical weapons was against Iran in the 1980s and they had been supplied by
the United States. Ronald Reagan, former President, has despatched a special convoy
to Baghdad to signal the approval of the White House. (Introduction, Page xvi. Ali,
2002)
This book is not primarily about 9/11 and its consequences, however, rather it surveys
the history proceeding those events, what Tariq describes as a virtually "forbidden
subject". Tariq refers to the "dead-end of market-fundamentalism", and warns: "If
Western politicians remain ignorant of the causes and carry on as before, there will be
repetitions".
Central to the book is an analysis of Islam, "its founding myths, its origins, its history,
its culture, its riches, its divisions" (Page 4. Ali, 2002). Ali states that he wants to
investigate why it has not undergone a Reformation? How did it become so petrified?
He explores different stems that have evolved from the Islamic faith such as
Ottomanism and Wahhabism and what Islamist politics represents today. Tariq deals
proficiently with a range of issues vital to an understanding of the world today. Tariq
combines a historical analysis with his personal reminiscences, which creates reader
empathy. In the first half of Part1, Tariq Ali gives a genealogy of the heritage of
2

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

Islamic civilization. Taking us from his personal introduction of an atheist childhood,

to Islamic learning, through the days of the Prophet Muhammad and his early
conquests to the Crusades and the Ottoman Empire. These are followed by two other
chapters on the roles of believers within the Islamic faith and the role of women and
sexuality.
In Part II of the book Ali explains the way a puritanical strand of Islam ends up
making common cause with the imperialistic designs of the West. He titles Part II
One Hundred Years of Servitude and quotes Abdelrahman Munifss Cities of Salt
to describe his feelings of the time. By God, Your Excellency, we were as happy as
we could be before those devils came along. Every day it gets worse. You know, Your
excellency, that the Americans arent doing it for God.Once again Ali makes sure to
instill in the minds of his readers Americas continual agenda throughout history and
into the future. The author details the emergence of Zionism and Britains
encouragement of it, the experiments with socialism in Arab countries such as Egypt
and Syria, the trauma caused by the 1967 war, the rise and fall of Anwar Sadat and the
Shah. The result was that during the last decades of the twentieth century virtually the
whole Middle East was submerged in an 'Ocean of Terror'.
He entitles a chapter The Kingdom of Corruption which explains western take-over
of Saudi-Arabia. In it he describes how the United States, determined not to permit
Britain the entirety of riches beneath the sand, sent US oil prospectors to establish
contact and they merged Standard Oil, Texaco and Mobil to form the American
Arabian Oil Company and in 1938, the production of oil began. (Page 85, Ali, 2002)
In Part III, Tariq Ali shifts his attention back to his region of origin: South Asia. He
explains how the tensions between India and Pakistan can be traced back to the
partition of the formerly British India. During the run-up to independence the leaders
of the Congress Party and Muslim League did not envisage the horror and atrocities to
which they would expose the people they were suppose to represent. Later on it lead
to a bloody war in Bangladesh, Ali qualifies the Kashmir issue as the unfinished
business of partition (Page 232. Ali, 2002) Continued interference by the post World
War II superpowers did nothing to improve the situation. Pakistani and Indian politics

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

became hopelessly corrupt, even before the situation in Afghanistan was to become
completely out of hand.
While in the previous parts the author has tried to give an explanation for the rage that
is holding large parts of the Islamic world in its grip, his final section starts with a
chapter entitled `A Short-Course History of US Imperialism'. In many instances Ali
hits the nail on the head - the doctrine of Neo-Liberalism is just as fundamentalist in
character as Islamic radicalism. In this chapter he talks of US imperialism from the
very beginning. He notes that what is now the United States, was, for two and a half
centuries, remained a self-sufficient world. He notes the rise of US power as a
comination of internal imperialism (the genocide of the native population) and the
armed trading of slaves on the African coast.
Ali quotes President Conant of Harvard Universitys interview with the New York
Tribune in Herald in 1948 This nation, unlike most others, has not evolved from a
state founded on military conquest. We have developed our greatness in a period in
which a fluid society overran a rich and empty continent (Warde, 1949) Ali questions
in whose eyes was the continent empty. Were the Indian wars not real? Were they
phantom struggles?( Page 284, Ali, 2002) He implies that perhaps Protestant
fundamentalism provided a moral justification for large-scale land theft as well as the
mass murder of the different native tribes that held the land in common.
At the end of his book he concludes Here lies the challenge. We are in desperate
need of an Islamic Reformation that sweeps away the crazed conservatism and
backwardness of the fundamentalists but, more than that, opens up the world of Islam
to new ideas which are seen to be more advanced than what is currently on offer form
the West. This would necessitate a rigid separation of state and mosque; the
dissolution of the clergy; the assertion by Muslim intellectuals of their right to
interpret the texts that are collective property of Islamic culture as a whole; the
freedom to think freely and rationally and the freedom of imagination. Unless we
move in this direction we will be doomed to re-living old battles, and thinking not of a
richer and humane future, but of how we can more from the present to the past. It is
an unacceptable vision

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

2. This study has thought me a great deal about the world we live in. First and
foremostly the prelude to the September 11 attacks. I now know that the attacks
were for a reason. They were a long awaited taste for the US of their own medicine.
There is a universal truth that pundit and politician need to acknowledge: Slaves and
peasants do not always obey their masters.(Page 4. Ali, 2002). I was startled to
discover that, the world over, celebrations insued following the attacks. Ali cites
examples from all continents of the world of muslims and non-muslims celebrating
what so many had long been waiting for. Tariq quotes a conversation he had with a
New York taxi driver who was originally from Central America after the attacks:
Ali: I just wondered whether you were near the Twin Towers that day.
Taxi driver : No, I wasnt but I wouldnt have cared if I was.
Ali: What do you mean?
Taxi driver: It wouldnt have mattered if I had got killed. The important thing
is that they were hit. I was happy. You know why?
Ali: No.
Taxi driver: You know how many people theyve killed in Central America?
Ali: Tell me.
Taxi driver: Hundreds of thousands. Yes, really. Theyre still killing us. Im
really happy they were hit. We got our revenge. I feel sorry for the ones who
died. Thats more than they feel for us.
Ali: Why do you live here?
Taxi driver: My son is at school here. Im working to pay his education. We
had to come here because they left nothing back home. Nothing. No schools.
No universities. You think Id rather be here than in my own country? (Page
318. Ali, 2002)

This conversation startled me. I had no idea people felt this way. Ali notes that
Chalmers Johnson did, he had done so a whole year before the attackers hit.
Blowback is shorthand for saying a nation reaps what it sows, even if it does not
fully understand what it has sown. Given its wealth and power, the United States will
be a prime recipient in the foreseeable future of all the more expectable forms of
blowback, particularly terrorist attacks (Johnson, 2000)

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

Drawing toward the conclusion of the book Ali informs the reader that what lies
behind the bicarious pleasure is not a feeling of strength, but a terrible weakness. The
people of Indo-China suffered more than any Muslim country at the hands of the
American government. They were bombed for fifteen years and lost millions of their
people. Did they even think of bombing America? Nor did the Cubans or the Chileans
or the Brazilians. Today, people feel powerless. And so when America is hit they
celebrate. They dont ask what such an act will achieve, what its consequences will be
and who will benefit. Their response, like the event itself, is purely symbolic( Page
330. Ali, 2002)
I of course knew that the US has been heavily critisised for invading Iraq for reasons
other than revenge of the 9/11 attacks, especially when one takes into account that in
political, economic or military terms, 9/11 was barely a pinprick (Page 330. Ali,
2002). However, I did not realise that for the west, democracy means believing in
exactly the same things as they believe (Page 332. Ali, 2002) and that that Empires
act in their own self-interests. Ali proves this when he reveals that not a single US
intelligency agency has managed to prove that Iraq had any links to the September 11
attacks.
I also never realised what a huge theme oil has been throughout the history of the
America versus the World power struggle. Similarly, oil is a consistent theme
throughout this work. The first mention occurs in Alis introduction when attempting
to explain why the United States was so determined to wage the Iraqi war. He cited
that there were three main considerations: The first is that Iraq, a rich oil producer,
remained outside the control of the US. The second was that it was the only force in
the region that could threaten Greater Israel. Thirdly, there was a domestic agenda to
wean the pro-Zionist Jews away from the Democrats.
The second mention of oil comes as a quote from an article by Thomas Friedman for
the New York Times in 2003, Is the war that the Bush team is preparing to launch in
Iraq really a war for oil? My short answer is yes.
Nearly two entire chapters in Part II are dedicated to the beginnings of the US oil
perogatives of the last century. Firstly the formation of the Arabian American Oil
Company in Saudi Arabia, as I discussed in Part 1, where Ali stated that
Unsuprisingly, the United States safeguarded its own economic and imperial
6

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

interests and chose to ignore what took place within the borders of the kingdom.
(Page 85. Ali, 2002) The next chapter is about Zionism and the first Oil War. In this
chapter Ali remembers a teacher of his asking: You know why the West needs
Israel? and answering himself Oil. Oil. Oil.(Page 88. Ali, 2002)
Even in 1924 it was understood by Leon Trotsky the importance of the future of oil to
America, and what they would be prepared to do if necessary. He explained this in an
address to conference delegates: Oil, in the United States, totals two-thirds of the
world output, and in 1923 it had even reached 72 percent. Geologists actually do
confirm that American oil at the current rate of consumption will last twenty-five
years and according to others, forty years. But in twenty-five or forty years, America
with her industry and fleet will be able to take away the oil from all the others ten
times over again.(Trotsky, 1924)
Ali concludes his short-course history of US imperialism with: This is the world in
which we live out of tune with the lucid humanity and the social compassion
demanded by anti-globalisation protestors and beyond which, write the intellectual
apologists of this system, no substantial improvement can be imagined. It reminds me
of the title of a poem written seventy years ago by Bertolt Brecht: 700 intellectuals
bow before an oil tanker. (Page 315. Ali, 2002)
Leaving out all to do with the US empires and the effect the superpowers of the
world have had on less powerful countries, I learned a lot I did not know about the
history of Islam and how it came about, I was intrigued to learn that it started as
somewhat of a political party and of how it spread throughout the world.

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

3. I found this book to have many strengths, most of which I have listed and explained
in the previous parts of this review. Including the way he looks at the world not
through the eyes of someone from the West and puts the 9/11 attacks into historical
perspective and enlightens the members of the western world and the consumers of
this western worlds media and agenda that perhaps the terrorists of 9/11 were not
without motive.
I throughly enjoyed the first part, relating his childhod to the history of Islam whilst
making sure to instill in the readers minds the importance of religion and the
strictness of Islam in the life of a Muslim. I was fascinated to learn of the traditions,
the different sects, the women and society. I felt this part read almost like a fiction
novel as he, as the central character as a chold was easily relatable. Those chapters
flowed easily for me.
However, I felt that the next two parts of the book were written for someone with an
extensive knowledge of the history of Islamic politics. I had to research many names
and much of the political jargon used. I felt these sections took on a completely
different tone than the first two parts and were not as enjoyable to read nor as easy to
comprehend.
Another weakness I found was that the book seemed to follow no timeline. In one
chapter alone Ali could reference an event in 1621, 1432, 2001, 1984 and 1939. I
found this extremely hard to follow and for me, ruined the flow of events.
Also, it is unfair not to mention that perhaps Alis memories of events as a young
Pakistani boy were biased and through his eyes only. In Alis defence though, he
makes no attempt to hide this.
I throughly enjoyed the introduction, Prologue, Part 1, Part 4 and the Epilogue of this
work. The rest to me, was somewhat lost and became unnecessarily complicated in a
whirlwind of dates, political jargon and unexplained names unrecognisable to me.
Overall, I found The Clash of Fundamentalisms to be a highly valuable book for those
who want to look beyond the scare mongering of myopic politicians and sensationalist
media. In addition to that, Tariq Ali is an intelligent, vivid, entertaining and highly
persuasive writer.

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

Bibliography
Ali, Tariq (2002)
The Clash of Fundamentalisms Crusades, Jihads and Modernity
Verso (2002,2003)
Friedman, L. Thomas (2003)
A War for Oil?
The New York Times
Published: January 5, 2003
Available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/opinion/a-war-for-oil.html
[Accessed on 13/12/2010]
Johnson, Chalmers. (2000)
Blowback The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Henry Holt, 2000.
Warde, F. William. (1949)
A Suppressed Chapter in History of American Capitalism- The conquest of The
Indians
Fourth International, Vol.10 No.1, January 1949, pp.17-22.
Available at:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/novack/1949/01/indians.htm
[Accessed on 12/11/2010]
Weber, Mark (2006)
Familiar Lies for a New War: Fighting for Truth in an Age of Deceit
An address by Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review, delivered
at an IHR meeting in Arlington, Virginia, on July 8, 2006.
Available at:
http://www.ihr.org/news/060708_arlington_meeting.shtml

Katie Archer

Critical Book Review

15/11/2010

[Accessed on 12/11/2010]
Weinberger, Eliot (2005)
What happened here: Bush Chronicles
New Directions (2005)
Trotsky, Leon (1924)
Perspectives of World Development
Delivered: 28 July, 1924.
First Published: Izvestia August 5, 1924, No.177 as The Premises for the Proletarian
Revolution
Available at:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1924/07/world.htm
[Accessed on 14/11/2010]

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