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Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic lllusion of an Islamic State | 
 enlarge | Author: Tarek Fatah
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $28.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 648723
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0470841168
Dewey Decimal Number: 300
EAN: 9780470841167
ASIN: 0470841168
Publication Date: May 9, 2008
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Product Description
In Chasing a Mirage, Tarek Fatah Writes: Islamists argue that the period following the passing away of Muhammad was Islam's golden era and that we Muslims need to re-create that caliphate to emulate that political system in today's world. I wish to demonstrate that when Muslims buried the Prophet, they also buried with him many of the universal values of Islam that he had preached. The history of Islam can be described essentially as the history of an unending power struggle, where men have killed each other to claim the mantle of Muhammad. This strife is a painful story that started within hours of the Prophet closing his eyes forever, and needs to be told. I firmly believe the message of the Quran is strong enough to withstand the facts of history. It is my conviction that Muslims are mature and secure in their identities to face the truth. This is that story. Advance Praise for Chasing a Mirage "Tarek Fatah has written a provocative and challenging book which is a must read for anyone who cares about these issues."
—Janice Gross Stein "Chasing a Mirage is an extremely valuable contributing to the fight by progressive Muslims against Islamist fascism. This book should be required reading for the Left in the West who have mistakenly started believing that Islamists represent some sort of anti-imperialism."
—Farooq Tariq "Fatah argues passionatley for universalism instead of exclusivism, integration instead of ghettoism, and makes a powerful appeal for the silent majority of Muslims to speak out before it is too late. This work of courage and daring needs to be read widely."
—Pervez Hoodbhoy "This fascinating work by brave and bri8lliant tarek Fatah is simultaneously thought-provoking, instructive and enlightening for laymen and scholars, Muslims and non-Muslim...an invaluable and rare addition to the corpus of Islamic literature in the post-9/11 world, a bold step towards Islamic Reformation and Enlightenment."
—Taj Hashmi "Tarek Fatah's is a voice that needs to be heard. Canada needs a healthy, reasoned debate about the issues he is raising, and indeed so does the world."
—Bob Rae "This fascinating work by brae and brilliant Tarek Fatah is simultaneously thought-provoking, instructive and enlightening for laymen and scholars, Muslim and non-Muslim... an invaluable and rare addition to the corpus of Islamic literature in the post-9/11 world, a bold step towards Islamic Reformation and Enlightenment."
—Taj Hashmi "Tarek Fatah's is a voice that needs to be heard. Canada needs a healthy, reasoned debate about the issues he is raising, and indeed so does the world."
—Bob Rae, Member of Parliament, Canada
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 bias August 16, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
[...]
From what I have read, my opinion is that this book is very biased and I could somewhat taste the hatred for Muslim / Islamic culture in Mr. Fatah's writings.
When I read a book, my expectation is that the book will be free of judgement and biases; thus allowing the reader to make up his/her own mind. But in this case, the book is full of false assertions, inaccuracies of historical counts, and attacks 99.9999999% of things that Muslims hold dear and close to them.
Now, this does not mean that Mr. Fatah's criticism of the likes of Osama Bin Ladin are invalid, but what irked me is that he lumps lot of parts of Islamic culture in one plate and "applies" backwardness and intolerant.
Frankly speaking, I think Mr. Fatah is intolerant himself and needs to expand his horizons based on non-biases assessment of the Muslim culture.
 What a read! June 5, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
CHASING A MIRAGE is a masterpiece from Tarek Fatah. I would call it the best book I have read in 2008 and I am quite a voracious reader, and an author of 46 books myself. An orthodox Muslim might find it offensive, but the truth is always bitter. For the open-minded, the work is an eye opener. It gives the reader plenty of material to look into the causes of the current global misery of Muslims. The great art of the author is that his criticism simultaneously points to the cure for the malaise of fundamentalism, extremism, and orthodoxy. I would advise the esteemed author to take possible verdicts of infidelity by Muslim clergy with a grain of salt.
The sensible among the Ummah will see Tarek as a sincere reformer. I wish him all the best.
A compelling rejoinder to extremists May 27, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This recently published book is a blunt assessment of the root causes of extremism that are experienced in muslim communities. The auther pulls no punches and his extensively researched book is a gripping read.
Tarek explodes the myth of a "Golden age" that has become the rallying cry of Islamists, who want to impose their political ideology of Caliphate on both muslims and non-muslims. He has thrown the gauntlet to fellow muslims to reflect and educate themselves. From Sudan to Saudi Arabia, the author painstakingly highlights the clash between muslims who aspire to the spiritual message of their faith and the Islamists who want to warp faith for gaining political power. He has also covered in significant detail, the struggles of moderate and secular muslim Canadians against radical and Saudi/Irani funded Islamist groups who want to drag the failed experiments of their patrons into Canada; experiments that are a leading cause of ghettoizing and separation of muslims from non-muslims.
In exposing the dishonesty and moral bankruptcy of the Islamist agenda, the author has done extensive research and highlights that the harsh, backward and intolerant injunctions that have been sanctified as law by extremists wither and collapse when placed under the microscope of objective scholarship. A significant section of his book examines the struggle for political power and the sectarian schism that immediately followed the Prophet's death. This is scholarship that few muslims can openly discuss and which has already resulted in the targetted killings of minority muslims in Pakistan. His analytical approach to this sensitive and seldom discussed chapter of muslim history is unlikely to solve the Sunni-Shia polemics. However, his analysis and research on this topic should be studied as they highlight the ultimate fallacy of the Islamist demand for an "Islamic" State.
In a frank assessment of history and culture of different muslim communities, Tarek untangles and delineates political compulsions from theology. From Abu Zar, the companion of the Holy Prophet and the first muslim social activist and a central Sufi personality to the courageous example of Sudan's Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, Tarek highlights the example of those who stood up against political opportunism and stood by their principles. He calls on fellow muslims to inculcate an introspective, dynamic and spiritual "State of Islam" within themselves instead of sinking further in the trap of extremists who want to drag them along in their theocratic nightmare.
Not a scholarly work.. May 18, 2008
2 out of 15 found this review helpful
I would rate it lowly because of the lack of a scholarly unbiased aproach to the subject. The work reeks of a predetermined agenda.
A must-read book for anyone interested in the Islamist threat May 12, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Tarek Fatah has done his community a favor and the reading public a service by highlighting, at great personal risk, the problems he sees with Islamic fanaticism and the extremists desire to force-feed the illusion of an Islamic State on an unsuspecting world.
This book is worth reading because it is well-written, well-documented, and reaches out into uncharted waters. Hot-button items such as Human Rights in the Islamic context; the Apostasy Bill in Pakistan; Sharia laws; the Hijab controversy; and Jihad are discussed boldly and intelligently by the author.
One of his more fascinating chapters is the case study he has made of the Palestine-Israel problem which has been a global sore point for many years. He makes an excellent presentation showing that this problem could have been resolved had the Geneva Accord been implemented in 2003.
Most of the arguments presented by Tarek are in a thoughtful, reasoned way but it is in the chapter devoted to Jihad and specifically the "lesser" jihad (war in the cause of Islam) that he is most forthright
It takes courage to write a book like this. After making an honest appraisal of the malaise that affects Muslims he makes a plea to them to "oppose the extremists and present the more humane and tolerant face of our community" to the world. His may be just a voice in the wilderness but as Mother Teresa said in context, "What we are doing is only a drop in the ocean but the ocean would be diminished by that one drop."
Throughout his life and through this book, Tarek has sought to make a difference. He is concerned that the young men of his community may be led by Islamic scholars and clerics to "blame others for our shortcomings" and seek violently to establish a mythical Islamic State. He hopes that those who read his book will be secure enough in their faith to stand up and be counted so that the imbalance between the Islamists and Muslims is tilted in favour of the true Muslims. Maybe this is the wake-up call.
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