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Title: Great topic, executed horribly.
Review: Fred Reed's idea was to write a travel narrative of his quest to learn about Said Nursi, an Islamic dissident who still has an active following 50 years after his death. Said Nursi is a fascinating man deserving a fascinating study: Reed's scholarship is fine, but his book fails miserably.I could barely get through his writing, despite my determination to finish the book. Full of ironic pretensions to omniscience, with the self-pity and self-doubt that characterizes impotent intellectuals, Reed's writing could put out small fires. He is paranoid and suspicious, and his writing full of quickly withdrawn implications. Preoccupied with displaying his cleverness, he fails to take anything seriously.If you want to learn about Said Nursi and his followers, I don't know of a better source, and that is a sad statement. Yet there is absolutely no other reason to endure this book.
