SYMPATHY FOR THE DEMONIZED:

Travelling hopefully: ON THE ROAD TO KANDAHAR by Jason Burke (AMIR TAHERI, Times of London)

In this fast-paced narrative of a decade of travelling and living in half a dozen Muslim countries, Burke endeavours to share that fascination and sympathy. For the most part, he succeeds. His main concern is to show the diversity of Islam and to reject attempts by the West to turn Islam into a monolithic “other”. Muslims number 1,300m and are a majority in 57 countries. They are divided into six doctrinal schools and hundreds of sub-schools. Burke’s brisk reportage shows that being a Muslim in Pakistan is not the same as being one in neighbouring Afghanistan, let alone Bosnia or Morocco. That diversity, however, has not prevented Islamism from masquerading as the sole representative of the faith. Islamism is a political movement that, in its different versions, is seeking world conquest.