Book Review The Politics of Islamic Resurgence: Through Western Eyes: A Bibliographic Survey By Ahmed Bin Yousef and Ahmad AbuUobain. Spring­ .field, IL: United Association for Studies and Research, Inc., 1992, 199 pp. 1b.is bibliography covers articles in jownals and daily newspapers, books, conference papers, and dissertations published in western lan­ guages (mainly English) during 1970-92. The attempted coverage of ar­ ticles published in daily newspapers and conference papers, the last to be thought of and difficult to cover, is in itself admirable. However, while the limitation of "11uough Western Eyes" is suitable for the three intro­ ductory chapters, it is not so for the bibliography, as most of the literature cited is written by non-Muslims. In fact, only roughly one quarter (368) of all works cited (1405) are written by Muslims. This raises a question about the objective, although the compilers declare that it seeks to "pre­ sent the Western intelligentsia-scholars, politicians, journalists-with Muslim comment and a bibliographic collection of Western articles that have tackled the issue of Islamic revival" (p. ii). The book is divided into two parts: three introductory chapters and the actual bibliography. The first part was written by the compilers indi­ vidually "to provide substantive analysis as essays that reflect Muslim re­ sponses to the precarious relationship with the West ... [and they] aim at crystallizing the frequently distorted image of political Islam and the lslamic revival" (p. ii). Chapter one, "The Western Pen: A Sword in Disguise?," deals with western media bias and the consequent distortion of Islam through a) reproducing photos that appear as covers of such famous magazines as The Economist and Time and b) using slanted titles (i.e., "The Sword of Islam" and "Muhammad's Militants: Spreading Islam by the Sword­ Again") and special semantics (i.e., "fear," "impose," and "purge" as well as "fundamentalist network" and "wealthy fundamentalist businessmen") to propagate paranoia about Islam. The chapter highlights, through quota­ tions from various sources, fabricated stories, subjective opinions, and general unfamiliarity with Islam and tends to condemn western authors and journalists for their role in formulating people's opinions. It con­ cludes that "Islamic 'fundamentalism' is an all-encompassing term. It is 114 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 11:l applied to despots, atheists, secularists, pragmatists, philosophers, mur- deters, monarchies, oligarchies, and opposition groups alike; anyone who associates with Islam, be it on the basis of questionable or sincere intent, is subject to the labe1" (p. 18). Chapter two, "Islamists and the West: From Conftontation to Co- operation," raises questions regarding the increasing interest in Islam and Islamists after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It presents an historical account of western petceptions of Islam and the Islamic revival and covers geopolitical transfotmation, sociogeographic cohesion, and eco- nomic few. The chapter highlights "Islamic fundamentalism" as p r e sented in the western media and then moves on to allegations of "Islamic temrism." Later on, it compares the Islamic definition of democracy with its practice in the West. The Islamic concepts of shlini, om-', and ijtihad are also discussed. After looking at the relationship between the Islamists and the West from each side's point of view, it concludes that "a plan exists, written or otherwise, to achieve three goals: undermine Islamists' attempts to participate in elections, force Islamists to lose faith in democ- racy, as a result, and compel them to employ violence as a means of venting their fiusttations" (p. 41). Chapter t b , "Islam and the West: Realities and Potentialities," iden- tifies ideological differences between the two patties, in a sociocultutal context, through the terms "ummah" and "scientific fundamentalism.'' It then gives a brief historical background of positivism, colonialism, libet- alism, secularism, modemism, and Islamism. The author evaluates west- ern democracy, as opposed to hypocrisy, in his discussion of the Bosnian and Gulf crises. He then derives positive indicators for the current rela- tionship between Islam and the West: a) western scholars who seek to bridge the ideological divide; b) increasingly receptive elements in the western media when it comes to the Muslim world; c) resolute efforts of western human tights organizations, political patties, and diplomats to expose the inhumane politics of despots in the Muslim world; and d) the new phenomenon of Muslim communities in western cities and the con- version of many non-Muslims. The chapter ends on a hopeful note: "ex- tensive research and magnanimous comments made by several western in- tellectuals . . . regarding Muslims . . . [and] the contemporary scholarly activity [which] is also tempered with a knowledge of Arabic . . . [if they] ate complemented in diplomatic circles, the walls dividing the two civilizations will become bridges" (p. 45). These chapters ate much lengthier than is normal for a bibliographic compilation. They are also somewhat overlapping. It would have been better if they were written as an i n t d u c t o r y section, as this would have limited the scope and identified the type of publications included. Book Reviews 115 The actual bibliography classifies all entries as articles, books, and confemces/dismtations and then subdivides them by region. Multi- regional studies, or those topics having only a few citations, are placed under "Islamic Resurgence-General." 'This scheme is very unusual. First, such an arrangement is unhelpful, for related entries are scattered thtough three sections and sometimes appear under different subheadings. This could have been overcome by including a supporting subject index. How- ever, this was not pmvided and is a major drawback. Technically speak- ing, such an absence renders the bibliography incomplete. Moreover, the selection of subject headings within each section is not Systematic. For example, literatme about Afghanistan is found under "Afghanistan" in the articles section and under "Asia" in the other two sections (neither of which have an "Afghanistan" subheading). Listing the conference papers with the dissertations in the same section is also very unusual. It would have been more appmpriate to include them in the articles section or give them a separate section. The bibliography contains many typing ems. While some in the in- troductory chapters may be overlooked, thm appearing in the biblio- graphy can prevent a researcher from finding the desired information. For instance, in the fitst entry on page 94, the journal cited is Middle Emte Studies. The c o m t title is Middle Emtern Studies. Another type of error is found in the list of abbreviations (used for journals with "long" titles). However, some abbreviations are not uniform throughout the biblio- graphy: AAAPSS (Annuls of the American Academy of Political and So- cial Sciences) appears in the article section as AAPSS (pp. 59, 62, 64, 679, 86, 88,95, and 111) and as AAAPSS (pp. 99, 103, 106, and 111). Standardization is another problem. Although "the style used for this book is based on the Chicago Manual of S ~ l e " (p. l), this source is not followed for punctuation. For example, the colon (Chicago style) and the comma (MLA style) are used interchangeably to separate the year and the page numbers. The haphazard use of brackets to identify the year is also a mixing of the Chicago and LC styles. There ate further limitations on the professional side. The compilers' statement that "not all journals were reviewed due to the vast volume" (p. ii) is unacceptable professionally. In addition, the criteria for selection is not stated. The time frame is also a problem. The compilers say that the bibliography has "concentrated roughly on a twenty-year period-1970 to the p m t " (p. ii) and then do not justify why "several works prior to this time frame have been included, however, due to their relevance to the subject at hand" (p. ii). Moreover, the languages to be covered are not stated. Although the term "western" may imply western European lan- guages in general, the literatwe covered is in English, along with a very 116 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 11 : 1 few articles and books in French. The bibliography thus could be con­ sidered as dealing with English-language, as opposed to western, publica­ tions. On the other hand, if the compilers did in fact attempt to cover all publications in "western" languages, then the result is very shortsighted. Finally, the book ends with brief biographies of forty-six "scholars and authors who wrote on the Islamic resurgence ... [and are] deeply in­ volved in the Islamic and Arab worlds" (p. 190). These are very useful and are to the compilers' credit, for they identify these authors' profes­ sional capacities. But again, the criteria of selection was not stated and could be seen by unmentioned scholars as a biased stand. Hani M. Atiyyah, Assistant Professor Department of Library and Information Science International Islamic University Selangor, Malaysia