Definite Encounters

Consisting of eighty-eight short articles and divided into three parts, this compendium displays opinions on current issues and tensions underpinning Muslim relations with Western governments following 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. By profession, the writer is a scientist who writes novels and is a commentator on a variety of subjects, including Muslim history, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Islamic theology and the predicaments faced by a growing Muslim Diaspora in the North Atlantic regions. This author was also a vehement critic of the military take-over of Pakistan in 1999 by General Musharraf, and because of this he remained incarcerated in Islamabad due to several ongoing cases against him. The articles included in the book under review were written at a time when Huntington’s premise had obtained a new lease of life amidst post-invasion sectarian mayhem in Iraq, the continuing buzkashi in Afghanistan, and the regime in Pakistan kowtowing to Washington, like most other Muslim states, and also as global Muslims faced increasing scrutiny at airports, in the media and at the hands of official sleuths. So these articles look polemical, and they are indeed, yet they also show the difficult situation in which Muslims find themselves since the beginning of the new millennium. On the one hand, their identity, over and above their professional acumen and citizenry rights, got problematised, while concurrently many of them sought distance from an exclusive and even intolerant projection of their religion by some zealots.