The Broken Crescent: The Threat of Militant Islamic Fundamentalism

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Explores the historical and contemporary causes of the current wave of militant Islamic fundamentalism. Militant Islamic fundamentalists blame the ills of their societies on the West and call for the overthrow of local governments and the resumption of Jihad against the Infidels. Ambassador Hoveyda explores the historical and contemporary causes of the current wave of militant Islamic fundamentalism. He also shows why, despite their terrorist attacks in the West, fundamentalists are even more dangerous for Muslim countries that are desperately trying to join the incipient global economy and alleviate their accumulated social and economic problems. If Western colonization and economic domination of the 19th and 20th centuries are to be blamed for the predicament of Muslim countries, Hoveyda points out that Muslims also bear a great responsibility for their situation. He shows how the triumph of fundamentalist interpretations of the Korean in the 12th century triggered the gradual decline of Islamic civilization. He also chronicles the history of militant Islamic movements of the past and the present from the "Assassins" of the late 11th century to the reign of Ayatollah Khomeini. Having met his first militant Islamic fundamentalist at the age of four in Syria, where his father was serving as Persian Consul-general, Hoveyda draws upon a lifetime of person an family experience as well as scholarship and experiences of others to provide an important insider/outsider examination of a worldwide concern. Must reading for scholars, students, researchers, and policymakers involved with Middle East issues and for the general reading public.

Author Bio

Fereydoun Hoveyda is Senior Fellow with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He also is a former Iranian Ambassador to the UN (1971-1978). In 1972 and 1973, he chaired the UN Committee on International Terrorism created after the assassination of Israeli athletes at the Olympics in Germany. A widely published author of fiction and nonfiction, his Les neiges du Sinai won the Leopold Senghor Award in 1973.