The Crisis of Islamic Civilization
Author | John R. Maloney |
Position | Judge Advocate, U.S. Army |
Pages | 378-385 |
378 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 204
THE CRISIS OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION1
REVIEWED BY MAJOR JOHN R. MALONEY2
If Muslims do not muster the inner resources of their
faith to fashion a civilizing outer presence, then Islam as
a civilization may indeed disappear . . . Islam will simply
be another motif in a consumer-driven, self-obsessed,
short attention-span global culture; another ‘player’ in
the marketplace for ideas and religions. The retreat of
Islam into the private, individual sphere will be
complete. The much-heralded Islamic ‘awakening’ of
recent times will not be a prelude to the rebirth of an
Islamic civilization; it will be another episode in its
decline. The revolt of Islam becomes instead the final
act of the end of a civilization.3
I. Introduction
The Crisis of Islamic Civilization is an exploration of the nature of
Islamic civilization, the forces which have resulted in its progressive
decline, and the various means by which the Islamic world may come to
grips with modernity. It is within this context that Mr. Ali A. Allawi4
addresses the issue of “political Islam” or “Islamism,” which he uses to
characterize Islam as a political ideology that emphasizes religious and
1 ALI A. ALLAWI, THE CRISIS OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION (2009).
2 Judge Advocate, U.S. Army. Presently assigned as Litigation Attorney, Torts Branch,
U.S. Army Litigation Division, Arlington, Virginia.
3 ALLAWI, supra note 1, at 273.
4 Ali A. Allawi formerly served as Minister of Finance, Defense, and Trade in Iraq’s
post-war government. He is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at Princeton University.
Born in Baghdad in 1947, Mr. Allawi graduated from MIT in 1968 with a BSc in Civil
Engineering. He went on to do postgraduate studies in regional planning at the London
School of Economics, and then obtained an MBA from Harvard University. Mr. Allawi
was active in the opposition to the Baathist regime from 1968 onwards. He spent a
number of years in finance in various positions outside Iraq, including a position at the
World Bank. In 1978, he co-founded Arab International Finance, a merchant bank based
in London. In 1992, he founded Fisa Group, which manages two hedge funds. From
1999–2002, he was a Senior Associate Member at St. Anthony's College, Oxford
University. Ali A. Allawi, http://www.cceia.org/people/data/ali_a__allawi.html (last
visited Sept. 8, 2009).
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