Chasing a Mirage by Tarek Fatah: Book Review by Ayub Khan

Tarek Fatah, claims to be an ex surkha, ex KU, came to Canada via Jeddah. He has written a book which is being reviewed here by Ayub Khan. He claims to be a Muslim and claims to have an understadning of Islam that has escaped others down the centuries. He also aims to become the darling of the western Islamophobes like Salman Rushdie and Irshad Manji whome he has followed on a local radio talk show. Here are two excerpts~~t

It is a tragedy of the post-911 world that the field of Islamic concepts and terminologies have also fallen a victim to misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and plain hysteria. Fuelling these fears among the masses are not only rabid Islamophobes but also those who claim to be nothing of that sort but whose actions speak otherwise. Canadian TV host and commentator Tarek Fatah belongs to the latter category. He has a history of mindless criticism of things as mundane as the aversion to music to more significant ones as the introduction of Sharia-based laws in Ontario. In Chasing a Mirage: the Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State he tries to show that the idea of an Islamic state is not only futile and untenable but outright dangerous.

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Fatah sets out with a pre-determined objective and goes about attempting to strengthen it with all and sundry references. In his obnoxious attempts to display a secular than thou attitude, the ‘iconoclast’ Tarek Fatah has turned secularism itself into an idol; an untouchable beyond criticism. Thus, his opposition to the introduction of Islam based arbitration in Ontario despite its backing a former Attorney General of the province who wrote an exhaustive report in its support.

[thanks YA]