The Islamist revolution, largely misunderstood by the West, is rooted in the refusal of many Muslims to accept Western secularism, Alastair Crooke said yesterday, during a discussion in Washington of his new book, Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution.
Excerpted from Washington TV
“The essence of this [Islamist] revolution is a refusal, a passionate refusal by many Muslims, to accept the…understanding of the world in which they live which is dominated by secular consciousness,” said Crooke, a former Special Middle East Advisor to the European Union.
“It is a refusal to accept, if you like, Western deterministic, materialist view of the world. And it is an attempt to provide an alternative consciousness both of the self and the world around us,” Crooke added.
The discussion on 12 April was sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington-based think tank.
In the book, Crooke, who has mediated several negotiations between Islamist groups and Western nations, traces the “essence” of the Islamist Revolution from its origins in Egypt, through Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran to today. It argues that the Islamist Revolution should not be seen merely in political terms but that its philosophical and metaphysical dimensions have to also be considered if we are to understand movements such as the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In his summary of the book, Crook said that what is at stake is a fundamental clash of values between Islam and the West, stemming from the different way either side thinks about human beings. Read the full article here.