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Book Review – Dr. Rafiq Islam, Emertec R&D Ltd; Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Book title: True Islam, Jihad, and Terrorism: The Science of Islamic Foreign Policy – Jaan S. Islam

Publisher: New York: Nova Science Publishers

ISBN 978-1-63485-542-6.

At a time of politics of fear, Jaan Islam counters fear with knowledge in his masterpiece, True Islam, Jihad and Terrorism (Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2016). During the 2016 US election, it has become clear world peace and security is connected to the state of Islam and how it is understood in today’s context. This is a very timely book that fills a gap in the western society about Islamic history, philosophy, and political science. This book presents the Islamic political philosophy as represented in the writings of great Muslim thinkers and scholars such as Ibn Khaldun. Jaan Islam uses the so-called ‘Islamic cognition technique’ and starts the book with a chapter dedicated to Islamic cognition. This chapter on cognition itself is a paradigm shift in the modern research scholarship and can be considered for advancing knowledge in other fields. Such an extension was first pointed by Islam, Zatzman and Islam (2013) in their ground-breaking work on educational curriculum.

Following the tradition of early Islamic scholars, Jaan Islam presented all theories in the book with evidence from the primary Islamic sources, Qur'an and authenticated traditions of the prophet. These sources were completely ignored in the in the Orientalist (now it has morphed into neo-Orientalism) writings, which led to the inundation of the post 9/11 world with disinformation and agenda-driven ‘research’ about Islamic history. The distinction between this book and these agenda-driven ones gives the book a special value.

Although the book explains the Islamic foundations of political science and governance, it should not be looked at as a book of theology. It is a dogma-free approach that has been characterized as truly scientific elsewhere. Quite appropriately, the author starts off with a brilliant narration of Islamic cognition. It has been all but forgotten in the west that Islam is the religion that started the tradition of dogma-free, truly scientific cognition. The west does recognize Averröes, the famous Islamic scholar as the father of secular philosophy, whereas brands Islam as just another religion, similar to Christianity, infected with doctrinal philosophy. It is no surprise that with that starting point, Islam remains the most misunderstood religion in the west.

Chapter 3 of the book deals with fundamental philosophies of three major philosophers, namely Hobbes, Locke and Ibn Khaldun. In this chapter, the author debunks another myth, that is Ibn Khaldun’s political theory is somehow similar to those of Hobbes and Locke. Ibn Khaldun, the father of social science, indeed had a very different starting point in his cognition. The author points out how Ibn Khaldun’s first premise was Shahadah that formed the basis of the cognition axis by using Qur’an as the origin and prophet Muhammad’s life (through the book of Hadith) as the pivotal point. One the other hand, Locke had placed himself as the pivotal point, whereas Hobbes eliminated any cognition point. The author makes it clear that both Hobbes’ and Locke’s cognition tools are just as illogical as dogmatic cognition. In my researched opinion, this accurate distinction has not been made by any other author on the topic. It is because the eastern authors do not know about Hobbes and Locke and the western authors do not know about Islamic cognition that was obviously alive and well with Ibn Khaldun.

In Chapter 4, the author uses the case laws of the prophet and his four rightly guided caliphs (known as Rashedun Caliphs). Clearly, the author’s intention is to understand how the prophet and his closest followers went to war or which verses of the Qur’an they were enacting. For the first time anyone took this approach and not surprisingly, the author comes up with four rigid criteria from the Qur’an. No other author to the best of my knowledge connected them to specific wars that the prophet and his companions engaged in. This finding helps the author establish jus ad bellum that can explain every war that shaped the foundation of the young Islamic state of the time.

Similar to Chapter 4, the author discovers jus ad bello in Islamic jurisprudence in Chapter 5. Once again, the case laws are presented and analyzed in such a manner, one can take any new example and evaluate it to call it permissible or not. The theoretical basis for critiquing any modern warfare is set in this chapter.

In Chapter 6, the author addresses a difficult topic. When is it allowed or even mandatory to rebel against a head of state? It is often stated that Islam is a complete code of life. The author makes it clear that Islam didn’t leave anything to imagination and has left a strict criterion and modus operandi for any imaginable crisis that can occur at any time. The important question arises as to when a head of state that once claimed to have divine authority can be removed or when a head of state can be declared unfit and it becomes mandatory for the citizens to remove him or wage war if necessary. This is not an easy topic to cover even in today’s world. The author covers it with dexterity from an epoch he considers as exemplary. The history is not pretty and there is room for controversy as often the history is written by the victor and clearly after the demise of the rightly guided Caliphate, the victors were no longer rightly guided. The author weaves through this difficult process and makes it clear for the readership. This chapter can be an eye opener even for a student of Islam that has spent lifetime on the topic.

Often when Islamic criteria are discussed, eyes roll and eye brows furrow in disbelief. If it is all that simple, why don’t Islamic scholars have consensus? The author handles this topic like a pro. In Chapter 7, he analyzes current Islamic scholars and deconstructs their thought process. He has kind words for some but has nothing but scorn for the self-righteous, apologist ‘scholars’ that have done great disservice to Islam and/or scientific cognition process. One doesn’t have to be personal, but the writing is so clear, one can hardly afford to not get angry at certain genre of scholars. To anyone’s surprise, this list is not made out of anti-Islamic non-Muslim scholars.

Chapter 8 is where proof of the pudding appears. The author analyzes every major event of today’s political arena and analyzes it with the Islamic criteria of both jus ad bello and jus ad bellum. The author comes up with an index to rank various countries and groups. Most interesting is the discussion on current US allies, such as Saudi Arabia, and how they rank among the biggest offenders of Islam and Islamic laws. This is not a topic for the faint of heart but the author did an excellent job making it easily readable, punctuated with numerous riveting arguments.

Chapter 9 is the conclusion and recommendation. I have studied Islam for some 30 years and yet I found these conclusions novel and entirely logical. I doubt anyone would agree with the conclusions unless of course that person reads the entire book prior to reading the conclusion. It is important to read the book in sequence.



Chapter 10 lists the bibliography and references. It is many pages long and is quite comprehensive.

Chapter 11 is the Appendix that lists the letters of the prophet. It is a great idea to give the letters in original Arabic, so there is no room for misinterpretation, let alone disinformation.

Anyone with knowledge of Islam knows that Jihad is in the core of Islam and this book shows it is so and there needs to be no apology. Quite interestingly, the author even depicts Jihad as the roof of Islam. Without the roof, the Fort of Islam has no protection whatsoever. This depiction captures the essence of protection, security, as well as integrity and puts away the notion of Jihad being a weapon for Crusade like aggression.

This book belongs to the desk of any researcher interested in knowing about Islam or what Islam can do to bring about peace on earth in order to live out the true meaning of the word, Islam that means peace through submission to the creator. This book is equally useful for anyone interested in pursuit of peace and harmony that is truly elusive in today’s world. In this sense, this book is a manual for world governance in peace.