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The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Council on Foreign Relations)
by: Noah Feldman

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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 03, 2008
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Sales Rank: 24735
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.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Shell game
Noah Feldman's deeply interesting and profoundly misleading book supplies an answer to a question that must puzzle Americans who buy the argument that Islam is a religion of peace: Why do Muslim voters always turn out majorities for violent Islamist parties?
The short answer, according to Feldman, a Harvard Law professor and heavy hitter at the Council of Foreign Relations, is that misgoverned Muslims subscribe to a religion that makes much of justice, and they yearn for a return to a rule of law -- sharia -- that they believe worked in their glorious past.
You have to recognize that Feldman misrepresents the political goals of the Islamists, which he equates with the Muslim Brotherhood. In particular, he accepts the published platform statements of the various national Brotherhood parties, while ignoring their (more indicative) speeches to their adherents.
As well as to non-Muslims. The Islamists ... Read More

Rating:

- Feldman's book based on false premise
Noah Feldman's thesis is based on a false premise; one that suggests that Muslims around the globe are clamouring for an "Islamic State".

This assumption is repudiated by the fact that in the recent elections in Pakistan, all parties propagating the establishment of Sharia based Islamic State were trounced and the centre-left PPP formed a coalition with the number two party, the centre-right ML and the secular nationalists of the ANP.

In Indonesia as well as Bangladesh, there is little appetite for the Islamists while in Iran, if the Mullahs ever permitted a fair and transparent elections, they would be wiped out. No wonder the ruling Ayatollahs vet every candidate and reject the nomination papers of any secular liberal Muslim candidate, not mentioning the impossibility of anyone from the Left seeking any public office.

And in the Arab heartland, it would take no more than one ... Read More

Rating:

- Very good book
The author knows exactly what he is talking about. And unlike most of the literature he is trying to discuss the issue logically and in details.
He seems to have very good understanding of the way muslims think in the East.

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