Title: Not taking sufficient Western responsibility
Product review: Bernard Lewis's book is an exercise in blameshifting away from the West and towards the Middle East. He rightly points out Arab responsibility in reaching the current situation, but uses his substantial knowledge to understate the importance and influence of the West in shaping the current and recent political make-up of the region. His description of religious rigidity is overexaggerated and he seems unaware both of the substantial amount of critical Islamic scholars present in the Middle East and the limited influence of religious law in practice in most 'Islamic' countries. His regular thesis of Arab 'rage' and disappointment over lost status is part of an easy thesis that tries to partially simplify the Middle East-West tension to hysterical psychological undervelopment on the part of the Arabs. For people interested in finding out about violent forms of minority muslim fundamentalism, this is a particular bad read.
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