The World From Islam

The World From Islam – George Negus

In the aftermath of September 11th, the world was stuck on the idea of radical Muslims engaging in terrorist acts against “The West.” In an attempt to uncover the differences between Islam as a culture vs. Islam as a religion and how much extremists adhered to Muslim principals, George Negus set out on a journey around the Middle East to find the opinions and attitudes of everyday, “normal” Muslim. Negus, a famous Australian media personality known for his news reporting and travel pieces, embarks on his travels in the immediate aftermath of September 11th, then follows up two years later after Saddam Hussein had been ousted from Afghanistan. Armed with a list of references from friends and his own journalistic ability to talk to strangers, he has conversations with everyone from oil millionaires, sheikhs, lower class businessmen, and nomadic Bedouin about their religion, what it will take to get the Muslim and the non-Muslim world to interact peacefully, and how to settle the chaos that has consumed the region for as long as anyone can remember. He discovers a mixed world, almost a culture clash between a modernizing global world taking root in the midst of strong religious tradition. Ultimately, he finds that every Muslim he encounters is nothing other than your average human being, looking for a balanced life of spiritual fulfillment and worldly fun and rooting for peace and against suicide bombers. Curiously, there is basically unanimous agreement among the people he talks to about the solution to the Middle East chaos: a two-state solution to Israel and Palestine.

I was not a fan of this book. After reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I was looking for something with more information on the region, but despite the title, the book did not provide that. Negus has strong journalistic credentials, which he doesn’t hesitate in sharing in the book, but this didn’t feel like an investigation of Islam. His other renowned book, The World From Italy, was apparently an excellent travelogue on the life, culture, and architecture of Italy, and this book felt like it could be a sequel to his first (not that I’ve read the first, nor am I planning to). Rather than exploring the nuances of Islam as a culture vs. Islam as a religion, or even really explaining the fundamental beliefs of Islam, Negus tells us about the architecture, sites, and attractions in the Middle East. Since his travels extended over several countries, I had trouble keeping track of where he was, who he was talking to, and how it all related.

The writing style also bothered me. He kept asking rhetorical questions that were meant to emphasize how Muslims in the Middle East are normal people, but came off sounding patronizing. His 13-year-old son was one of his travel companions, and he kept referencing him in his questions and answers. Yes, the innocent questions of a child often force us to face harsh realities that don’t have simple explanations, but that tactic loses its effect after the first or second time. He also refers to himself as “the author” on multiple occasions. I was confused by this at first, then understood that he was talking about himself, but preferred to do so in third person rather than saying “I was talking to…”. Furthermore, his flowery language is full of embellishments that sound more like tangential wanderings than drawn-out explanations. It wasn’t easy to follow, it didn’t address the topic I thought it would, and was not written in the style I was expecting from a renowned journalist. The one credit I will give this book is that it is interesting to read it in the current context of the Middle East in a post-Osama Bin Laden and post-Arab spring situation. But really, don’t bother.