Baithak World Jun 23: Mirage Chasing, A G Noorani, News & Views, RealNews

The experience of reading the book is a jarring one. Tarek frequently overreaches, making claims beyond what the evidence provides. "the pain we suffer is caused mostly by self-inflicted wounds, and is not entirely the result of some Zionist conspiracy hatched by the West." (pg. xi) How IMF restructuring or repeated US bombings, invasions, and occupations are "self-inflicted" is unexplained. Sentences like that also put all Muslims together, though the politics and problems in different Muslim societies are different. CM includes preposterous statements about "nations such as India and China, with few natural resources other than their burgeoning populations" (pg. 325). India and China in fact have tremendous natural resources (especially agricultural resources) that are exploited to the fullest because of their large populations.

In any case Tarek and CM should not be quickly dismissed. For all the book's flaws, it does at times deal with serious issues seriously. It raises important questions about politics in immigrant communities and in poor countries. And although Tarek sometimes lacks compassion, makes cases by insinuation, ignores or blows off key parts of the story, misses crucial context, and makes claims well beyond his evidence, he also presents interesting arguments about history, discusses some neglected crimes whose main victims, after all, are Muslims, and is worth reading on contemporary debates even when you disagree. Unfortunately, to disagree with Tarek is to invite bombastic and overblown replies, but he also at times seriously attempts to engage in a way that might actually advance the debate on how best to advance decent values in both Western and Muslim societies. To advance that debate, it is worth assuming Tarek's good faith and giving "Chasing a Mirage" a careful reading to separate the parts that are without merit from the parts that have some. Reviewing Tarek Fatah's "Chasing a Mirage" by Justin Podur [thanks A]


IT is woefully clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is out to play the Hindutva card with great fervour in the next Lok Sabha elections. It has decided not only to politicise the mayhem that terrorists cause but to communalise it as well. It will target the Muslim community as a culprit to be denounced and a perpetrator to be punished. The cry for the re-enactment of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was revived after the Jaipur blasts on May 13. But the terms in which the plea is couched have escaped notice. Merchants of hate - A G Noorani

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