Shade of Swords

In this century, the Muslim image degenerated into a collage of harems, roullette-bled bank accounts, tinpot dictators of unrelieved cruelty and fat old kings manipulated by cynical multinationals. But in the common ferment an equation began to build between despair and preception - Allah had not deserted Muslim, the Muslim had deserted Allah. And so began the movement seeking to restore the umma to the faith. The Iranian Revolution lifted the cause of fundamentalism to the centre, unleashing a powerhouse of influences that are still reverberating through the modern world. With his keen knowledge of history and present-day geo-politics, the author of this book explores a range of issues including the Rushdie Fatwa, post-war Afghanistan, Pakistan after the last Jihad, Muslim anti-Americanism and the recent rearming of Iran.