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Viorst, Milton ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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IN THE SHADOW OF THE PROPHET: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM
Viorst, Milton
2001 6427 In his new book, In the Shadow of the Prophet, journalist Milton Viorst takes us behind the scenes of Middle Eastern politics to illuminate the complex struggle throughout the region to reconcile the Muslim community's fierce determination to live by traditional Islamic law and beliefs with the desire for economic and political power in today's world. Based on in-depth interviews with scores of key Islamic leaders and thinkers, In the Shadow of the Prophet explores the theological straitjacket in which traditional Islam has placed the region - and what the struggle for the direction of Islam means to the West. FROM THE CRITICS George McGovern : Over the years Milton Viorst has written of the Middle East with intellectual depth, first-hand observation and, above all, with clarity. This current timely, historically grounded analysis of the shaping influence of Islam on the Arab world is not only his best book but the best book I have seen anywhere on this important force in global affairs. Daniel Schorr (A) sensitive and revealing exploration of the many faces of Islam. In Milton Viorst's skillful hands, the specter of Islam dissolves into the complex and diverse reality of Islam. Viorst had buttressed untiring research with first-hand investigation that makes for a vivid narrative. Foreign Affairs A veteran Middle East hand, [Viorst] presents perceptive accounts of religious and political issues now being played out in Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Jordan, plus a solid chapter on the Muslims of France. Viorst is a master interviewer. Moreover, he has done the hard work of tracking down representative figures on all sides of these issues, presenting many individuals not that well known even to experts. Middle East Journal To accompany [Viorst] through this intellectual travelogue is.an illuminating experience. Publishers Weekly: Viorst, who examined the roots of Arab economic underdevelopment in Sandcastles (1994), returns to a Middle East beset by a clash among three competing forcesa deeply conservative Muslim orthodoxy; fundamentalists who seek a return to the values of seventh-century Islam; and "modernists," receptive to the West, who comprise a feeble political movement. Astutely blending history, reportage and political analysis, his odyssey gives readers a new lens for comprehending the ferment in the Muslim world. In Iran, where murderous vigilante squads roam the streets, Viorst spoke with activists and intellectuals who question the legitimacy of Khomeini's absolutist Islamic revolution. In Egypt, he gauged Hosni Mubarak's regime, which has tied its fate to Muslim orthodoxy, as ossified . Viorst, who writes with guarded affection for Arab culture, records a 1997 interview with Jordan's King Hussein, whose relatively liberal, tolerant administration has gone furthest in reconciling Islam to the modern world, in the author's opinion. Yet his valuable field reports from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan do not offer much ground for hope. Of special interest is Viorst's probe of France's Muslim community (nearly 10% of the country's population), which faces xenophobic prejudice, restrictive immigration policies and the immigrants' own ambivalence about integrating into French society. Westview Press 0813339022 / 9780813339023
Paperback AS NEW New York
Price:
19.31 USD
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WHAT SHALL I DO WITH THIS PEOPLE?: JEWS AND THE FRACTIOUS POLITICS OF JUDAISM
Viorst, Milton
2002 15000368 The distinguished Jewish historian Salo Baron once disparaged the "lachrymose theory" of Jewish history because it emphasized tragic events and a sorry trail of tears. What might he have said about Viorst's reading of Jewish history as an unending chronicle of conflict among Jews? Beginning with the dispute in Exodus when many Israelites questioned Moses and created a golden calf as an idol to worship, Jews have wrangled with one other throughout the ages. Viorst traces the record of these struggles from biblical times to the present, concluding with the sharp arguments in Israel between the Ultra-Orthodox and other Israelis. He sees the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Rabin by a religious zealot as the lowest point in conflict among Jews, and he wonders whether or not this murder signals such irreconcilable differences within the Jewish community as to threaten Israel's survival. This book should be read alongside Samuel Freedman's Jew vs. Jew, which describes contemporary controversies among American Jews. Freedman shares Viorst's view that internal disputes portend a gloomy future. Viorst's lucid review of Jewish history as a saga of dissension is most effective, though highly selective. His analysis and his presentation benefit from his impressive credentials as a journalist who worked for many years in the Middle East and who has written a dozen books. Viorst is no unbiased observer; he makes clear his strong opposition to Jewish religious extremism, thus inevitably contributing to the internal discord he so vigorously decries. "What shall I do with this people?" was Moses' exasperated question to God in Sinai, and it is posed once more in Milton Viorst's searching account of the crisis in Judaism today. Not since the destruction of the Second Temple, argues Viorst, have Jews displayed such intolerance toward one another or battled so fiercely over ideology. And these battles are not just intellectual exercises; they exact a fearsome price in today's Middle East . Framed by the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Orthodox extremist -- an unprecedented outburst of violence among Jews -- the book examines how religious leaders through the centuries have shaped Judaism to serve their own political ends, often with disastrous consequences. Viorst vigorously critiques Orthodox Judaism's doctrines concerning territory in the Holy Land as well as on marriage, divorce, conversion, and women's rights, contending that religious law often departs from the teachings of the Torah and has, in fact, changed over time to perpetuate rabbinic power. In recent decades, he believes, the Orthodox rabbinate has grown so intransigently political that its ideas have sundered the Jewish people, challenging their identity and, perhaps, threatening their very existence. What Shall I Do With This People? is both a meticulously researched history and a bracing commentary. Disturbed by the impact of intolerance on Jewish politics and society, Milton Viorst calls for an end to violence in the name of Judaism and offers a stirring plea for mutual understanding among what the Old Testament God called "a stiff-necked people." Amid the heat and noise of the Middle East conflict, his is a lucid, compelling, and necessary voice. Free Press 0-684-86289-1 / 9780684862897
Hardcover As New Condition Old Tappan, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Price:
22.28 USD
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