Islamic Fundamentalism and the Doctrine of Jihad By A. J. Abraham (USA: Wyndham Hall Press, 2002. 118 pages.)

Abstract

A. J. Abraham, a professor at CUNY and the New York Institute of Technology,
as well as a scholar of Near and Middle Eastern History, accurately
states that the “Islamic Tendency” has been a significant phenomenon
in contemporary times and has “attracted a great deal of negative attention”
(p. 2). This compendium packages two prior works: The Warriors of God:
Jihad (Holy War) and the Fundamentalists of Islam and a monograph entitled
Khoumani and Islamic Fundamentalism: Contributions of Islamic
Sciences to Modern Civilization. The former is based largely on thesis
material coauthored with George I. Haddad at Princeton; the latter is a
monograph presented during the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran. The intent of
bringing these two works together is ambitious: to foster a “sympathetic”
but objective lay understanding of jihad (p. 2) that excludes the sensationalist
views exploited by all factions for political aspirations. The author’s
premise, as noted in the preface, is the need for “balanced yet opposing
points of view” (p. 3).
The first work provides a background and insight on jihad that delves
beyond the “holy war versus internal struggle” discussion. A methodological
breakdown of jihad into seven chapter topics, starting with the
hermeneutical “Doctrine of Jihad” and ending with the legalistic “Status of
Non-Moslems,” follows a logical pedagogy in the conventional understanding
of jihad from an ideological framework to an actual interpreted
law. Abraham also acknowledges factors leading to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism
(p. 12), and thereby provides a succinct framework for further
discussion. Inasmuch as these factors could have been more seamlessly tied
to current developments across the Middle East, Abraham treats the defunct
clash between the Islamic world and the Soviet empire as more a symptom
of “resisting secularism” than of addressing the actual appeal of Islamic
fundamentalism itself to individuals and the collective Muslim psyche ...