Recommended book review: Dr. N. Jabbour

another book from my seminary summer reading list:

subject: Notes on reading for CIU course ICS/MIS 6073, “Islam in the 21^st century”

with Dr. Nabeel Jabbour

submitted:     Aug 7th, 2013

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Jabbour, Nabeel. The Rumbling Volcano. Islamic Fundamentalism in Egypt.

Pasadena CA: Mandate Press, 1993, ISBN 0-87808-241-7, LC #BP64.E3J33. Available from William Carey Library.

BOOK Abstract

 Dr. Jabbour seeks to explain and evaluate the rise of fundamental Islam in Egypt over the past century and show how it affects not only politics in Egypt but throughout the Muslim world.  Being able to analyze the sources missed by most scholars in the West he attempts to understand the leaders of the movements from their point of view and then carefully draws conclusions of their social and religious power and weaknesses.  Written before current changes in the Middle East it gives helpful background and even somewhat predicts much of what has occurred since 2010.

BOOK Comment

1. Evaluate the book.  How do you agree and disagree with the author.

 I imagine Dr. Jabbour’s audience as businessmen, journalists, generals, diplomats, and students of the Mideast who need to understand the Al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist, Jihadi, Boko Haram, and similar Islamist movements that so trouble today’s political scene.  This book should be on the reference shelf of all such leaders, and they should be hoping for an update as events of this decade turn.  The focus is on Egypt, the biggest and most influential political and religious player in the Arab world, and it clearly shows how the country lurched through the decades of 20^th century political, economic, and religious evolution, Israeli conflict, bad governments, and passionate leaders, and prepped it for the calamities of the so-called Arab spring.

He called the assassination of President Anwar Sadat one of the most stunning in the century (Jabbour, 177). Well, perhaps it was for Egypt, but there have been many others sadly, also so stunning for their contexts.  Predicting a volcano erupting in Egypt soon, I would have liked him also to have shown how he expected the fundamentalist revolution to spread worldwide and become the moral and social impetus for much of the terrorism of today.

2. How did this book challenge your prejudices and your assumptions?

I much appreciated Dr. Jabbour’s plan of study that one must understand the fundamentalist from their point of view and try to know what drives and motivates them to do dastardly acts.  He seeks to interpret them by their own thinking and actions, and not merely by an outsider’s point of view.  Many leaders in the Muslim world are very intolerant of them, and Jabbour seeks to see why a Muslim government would not tolerate such thinking and action by fellow Muslims, something the Westerner is also much confused about.  This is an approach to learn and emulate.

3.  What lessons can be learned from this book?

The Western world, especially, can benefit from learning about the key players in the evolution of Islamic fundamental thought and action such as Ibn Taimiyya, Al-Banna, Qutb, Sariyya, Shukri, Faraj, Rahman, etc., all read by fundamentalists today, decades later.  He shows that a puritan emphasis of return to basics has existed since just after Muhammad the prophet in the teachings and actions of the Kharijites which inspire the fundamentalists today.  Such divisions are not just denominationalism, but deep divisions of approaches to the Qur'an and their concepts of action, the caliphate, and the domain of Islam.  The Shi'a branch is even affected, and the Iranian revolution has much inspired the fundamentalists later, also.

A committed Christian leader who knows Egypt, Dr. Jabbour also showed the effect of the movement on a church in the midst of a Muslim society.  God’s church can endure, and many groups have done well through the centuries in a minority context.  Sometimes, however, Christians can be targets in the socio-religious and political movements of the day, and the author shows that the true gospel of reconciliation in Christ can allow a faithful witness instead of a hunkering down and withdrawal from testifying of a gracious God.

4. How did this book impact your thinking, your convictions, and your life?

Normally Christian work in West Africa is not affected by such events thousands of miles away.  But in recent years globalization has brought not just cell phones but also fundamentalist thought to trouble even poor, small, Muslim MALI.  The recent civil war in 2011-2013 was much driven by the Al-Qaida movement, and much opposed by both the civilian and military government and the people.  Yet, many Malians were taken up by it, some joined the rebels, and some started to espouse these teachings (to their regret in some cases).  This book and the related class at CIU have helped me understand the roots of these groups and will help me in teaching once returning to Africa. 

The teacher requested these two statements, if true:
I have read the whole book from cover to cover. I did not read any of the book reviews on the internet.  My response and book review is based only on my reading of the book.