Book Review #98: The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History By Sanjeev Sanyal

Title: The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History

Author: Sanjeev Sanyal

Publishers: Penguin India

Genre: Geo-political History/History/Maritime History

Pages: 374 (Paperback)

Source: Personal Copy

Being a regular reader of the history I was fascinated by this book by the author Sanjeev Sanyal. Having read his previous book "Land of the Seven Rivers" I was all eager to read this new book. In his previous book, he talked about the seven important rivers of India including the mighty Saraswati River. The Land of seven rivers was summed up in one line as “Seven Rivers (Sapth Sindhu), One Country, Five Millennia, Startling History”.

Asian histories have been rendered in a biased manner since time immemorial. As a famous saying that goes, until an animal has its own history, the history of the hunting will always glorify the hunter. If we take any history curriculum in Indian education system, we can read leaps and bounds of Mughul Empire, the British regime, the Sultanates and such similar accounts. 

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to read the histories of Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas in greater detail and their glories have been limited to few pages here and there. This book, one of a kind in its genre, breaks that stupor and gives us a riveting account of how the Indian Ocean has shaped the human history. Indian Ocean is itself a big mystery. It holds many unresolved or undiscovered history that is hidden deep into its core. Author Sanjeev Sanyal tried to uncover this in this vast researched and well articulated book and succeeded in satiating his readers.

The book opens up by a fascinating tale of how the Pallava dynasty has traced an heir to their Kingdom when the erstwhile King, Parameshwara Verman II died in 731 CE. A delegation of Brahmin scholars, which travelled across the Indian Ocean to the far ends of Cambodia, and got back an heir that traced his roots to the Pallava dynasty from five long generations ago!! Thus, the reign of Nandi Verman II has started.

Hundreds of questions pop up as we read further through the book. For example:

Why did Vasco Da Gama worship in a Hindu temple when he set in India for the first time?

Why there are fossil remain of marine animals have been found in the Himalayas?

How come the Parsi community of India embraced the Guajrati culture so effortlessly?

How did the Sinhalese come to Sri Lanka?

What was the connection of the Sri Vijaya Empire with the Chinese?

How did the world’s second Mosque (King Cheraman Perumal) have been built in Kerala, India? What was the motive behind it?

How did Portuguese and Dutch have taken advantage in conquering parts of India?

How come we see oriental faces of engravings by Pallavas?

And so on…

The Ocean of Churn begins its journey even before the formation of the Indian Ocean. It talks about the super continent called Gondwana (This name is derived from the Gond tribe of the central India) that existed more than 270 million years ago and the mighty Saraswati River and how it dried up due to the tectonic plate shifts, how the Himalaya has been formed, and how the races have been migrated from India to outside world. This book traces the history through the Ocean way. How people set up its civilizations, how their trade hub got established, what was their commercial aspects, how they dealt with various traders inside and outside their territory and so on.

Sanjeev Sanyal views this history as Complex Adaptive System. Given his background in Economics, where he considers multiple factors act upon a system to determine the direction it takes. From Harrappan times, Indians have been trading with the world in many ways. Maritime trading is the major aspect during those times when land routes were hardly discovered. The powerful Chola king, Rajendra Chola made a naval attack on the Sri Vijaya Kingdom of Sumatra by 1025 is one such example. Chola Empire was one of the powerful empires in the entire South Asia region during that time. There were a major geo-political-economic alliances or rivalries between Indians, Chinese and the Sri Vijaya Kingdom.

Kerala being the hub of the maritime trade have witnessed a vast amount of geo-political-economic tradeoffs. As a testimony to those, even today in Kerala, we have the world’s second Mosque and India’s first mosque (Cheraman Perumal Mosque) built by the king Cherman Perumal by the orders of Mohammed the prophet himself in 629 AD. We also get to see the memorial of St. Thomas (doubting Thomas fame), a disciple of Jesus, who visited Kerala via sea route.

Overall, this book is a well researched one. It starts right from the origin of India Ocean due to the tectonic plate shifts and ends right at the transformation of Bombay to Mumbai with the reclamation of land over the Ocean. This book is full of rich details of all Kingdoms that throve around the Indian Ocean, Indian coastline, and several islands of the Indian Ocean that also had cultural trade ties with India and its Kingdoms.

Author personally visited several of these places that he mentions in his book. It shows what kind of painstaking research that he has put in this book. It is extremely informative and knowledge enhancing. As the author himself remarks at the end of the book “A systematic bias I have found in the existing literature is the preference given to the writers and sources from outside the continents.” This is evidently true, as we are fed with the histories that are written by mentally enslaved minds. It is time to look through a new perspective and stop looking towards the west for our recognition. India was and is an ancient lands with many millions years of history. Authors like Sanjeev Sanyal should be encouraged by reading these kinds of books.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #88: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Life, Their Fraud By Arun Shourie

Title: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Life, Their Fraud
Author: Arun Shourie
Publishers:HarperCollins Publishers India
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 270 (eBook edition)
Source: Personal Copy

Does the modern liberals hate Hindus and demean our scriptures right from the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads and Hindu philosophy ? Then, who is to blame? Does all these secular changes were new to India? Does belittling Hinduism is the new phenomenon? From where does these set of people even come from? Those very answers lies in this exceptionally written book.

Arun Shourie the author turned politician has penned this epic rebuttal to those intellectual terrorists and demagogues and ripped apart their lies that they peddled for nearly 4 decades. Communism is not new in India, in fact, the communists supporters are prospering in India since its inception till today. But they do it openly. But, how about those so called intellectuals and historians who subvert the very history of India to please their masters and doing more damage to the national prosperity? Arun Shourie has addressed the very same issue in this book titled Eminent Historians.

The first few pages of the book doesn't seems quite interesting as there only figures of the money that these eminent historians took to complete their writing projects at the expense of tax payers. Shourie has tabulated all those details of each individual who are making a moolah by doing nothing. The scores of these historians are in the likes of Irfan habib, R.S Sharma, Bipan Chandra, Lal, Panikkar, Romila Thapar, Anand, and so on. These people were adorning the highest chairs of Universities in this country and are helping to nurture their proteges by imbibing the same communist ideologies in their pupils. These historians have took all the advantage of government to write something real, but all they did was to subvert the very basic foundations of this country.

As the book progresses further, we get to see from the example of West Bengal government's action plan of editing the history text books for school children. As per accounts exposed by Shourie, all those crimes and robberies committed by the Islamic invaders was deleted from the books at the orders of their existing government at that time. Instead, kids were taught how intolerant that the Hindus and Hindu religion is. There is not an iota of doubt that, the communist champions were the brain behind these.

This is just an example from the book. You get to read many such cringe worthy details of these communist authors that went ahead and tried to paint a bad image of Hindustan. Shourie emphasizes the fact that, even Russian authors are fair enough in their writings than these communist eminent historians of India. These communist historians are peddling lies after lies and worshiping the likes of Mao, Stalin, Engels, etc.. These are gods and flag bearers of social justice.

Shourie further exposes the lies of those authors who claims that the Hinduism is a new 19th century British created movement and there was no real Hindu religion at all. These authors goes a step ahead to celebrate Jainism and Buddhism. They also mention that, Hinduism has targeted the Buddhists and Jains in India that resulted in the decline of these religion in India. But, they forgot to mention the attacks perpetrated by the Islamic invaders who pillaged the country and ransacked their monasteries. Author has exhumed the truth by giving the right references for each of their lies and exposed them brilliantly. 

I guess, more Indians should read this book to understand why there is liberal movement in today's India? Why there is an uproar of modern secularism? Why the universities like JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) is breeding anti-nationals in their campuses? Why there are no real historians remained in this country that could teach the real Indian history to its people? And, finally, why this new generation of students who remain closed to the arguments and research, but, believe in the books offered by our governments as curriculum?

The book overall exhumes the truth in the subtle way. There are few section of people who argue that, Arun Shourie has written this book to settle personal scores and animosities with these authors. But, it is not. Try being rational and open up to the arguments presented by the author. It is really an important book for everyone. A collectors gem. Highly recommended.

My Rating:
5/5

Book Review #86: Tinderbox: The past and future of Pakistan By M.J. Akbar

Title: Tinderbox: The past and future of Pakistan

Author: M.J. Akbar

Publishers: Harper Collins

Pages: 330+ (Paperbound)

Genre: Non-Fiction/History/Politics

Source: Personal Copy

As a history aficionado, I am always fascinated by the history. Especially interested to learn more about India and Pakistan. The Tinderbox by renowned journalist, columnist and writer M.J. Akbar provides us a fascinating and a riveting account of how the formation of Pakistan happened and what were the reasons behind it. The book is well researched and documented.

The narration of the book is in chronological order starting with the Islamic invaders into India right from the Sultanates, Ottomans, Turks, Moghuls, etc… Each invader has a specific purpose in their minds, that is, conversion and pillaging the country to the maximum. Author has narrated a brilliant picture of all these things in the most simplistic manner. The book never seems to be a hard read, rather, one can enjoy each chapter and reminisce the historical aspects.

Pakistan as a country, which was created out of religious demands by the handful of influential people who worked mainly to satiate their ego. Starting with Maudadi in the post Mogul era and with the advent of Mohammed Ali Jinnah during the British era had just one agenda and propagated the same. Indian Muslims are not safe in the Hindu India. They have purposefully spread this message time and again and lured the masses into believing that Islam is in danger in India.

The book mainly divided into three different levels. First, the Muslims of India during the time of Islamic invaders time in the likes of Turks, Afghans, Moguls, and Sultanates etc... Secondly, the Muslims of India during the British tenure and finally the Muslims as what we see today, in Pakistan. The creation of Pakistan on the basis of religion itself is a major setback for Pakistan. The Qaid-e-azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah has envisaged something before the partition and aspired to turn Pakistan into something similar to Turkey (a modern secular Islamic country) was failed at large. From the book, we can make sure that, the intervention posed by the mullahs and other religion fundamentalists in the administration of Pakistan government resulted in not achieving what Jinnah aspired off.

The Indian Muslims before the partition was constantly brainwashed by the leaders like Jinnah and Maudadi with their constant public stunts of Muslims are not safe in India. Jinnah even went a step ahead and used Gandhi’s metaphor of “Rama Rajya” into something unbelievable. Jinnah has said to his followers that, Gandhi wants India to be Hindu rajya and not a secular state. All these things led to the partition of India into India & Pakistan. While India has come out the grim situation of partition, whereas Pakistan is still under turmoil by keeping one leg in Islamic ideologies and other in democracy.

M.J. Akbar goes on to explain the political angle of Pakistan post partition. Just after 2 months into Independence, Pakistan has started to eye on Kashmir. With the input of religious fundamentalists, Pakistan started to train their Mujaheddin a.k.a terrorists to wage a proxy war against India. India on the other hand, had brilliantly tackled all the attacks of Pakistan in every war and defeated Pakistan. Pakistan’s humiliation went hundred degrees up when its eastern piece has fought with them to create what is now called as Bangladesh. India had helped Bangladesh to gain its independence. The more humiliation for Pakistan when more than 90 thousand Pakistan military persons surrendered before India as prisoners of war.

The book further explains the Pakistan’s stand on terrorism on a global scale. It’s no more a secret that, Pakistan’s ISI (Inter Service Intelligence) agency was the father of breeding terrorists in their backyard. It has proved time and again that, several terror groups like Laskhar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohmmad, Hizbul Muzahiddeen, etc… was the brainchild of Pakistan to wage an alternate kind of war against India to clinch Kashmir. The book provides an ample amount of evidence from various references that how Pakistan is nurturing terrorism in their own country. It was proved on global level when Osama bin Laden was found in the safe harbor of Pakistan, in a city called Abbottabad.

With all these dreadful attempt by Pakistan with the sole purpose of gaining Kashmir has proved nothing in favor of them. Instead they should concentrate on their country by uplifting poor who are joining terrorist organizations because they don’t have enough money to support their families. The advent of Madrasas in thousands of numbers has proved again that, the religion indoctrination has seeped into every vein of a Pakistani. As the book suggests, there is no turning back for Pakistan to see what has happened, instead, they should focus of building their future for the coming generation of Pakistan.

The book covers some more fascinating facts and figures which I have not included in my review. The book has been brilliantly written, profoundly researched and documented. A collectors gems. Written in the simplistic style with good anecdotes makes this book more readable. A recommending stuff.

My Rating:

4.5/5

Book Review #54: I am Malala - The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot By Taliban By Malala Yousafzai

I am quite sure that those of you who have heard or listened to this young girl’s story would be exclaiming in surprise “She is one tough teenager!” I am also one of them after reading her biography or rather her little story of how this assassination attempt by Taliban has brought this young girl to the outside world. Before I started to read this book, I was under the impression or rather you can say it as ignorance that, what this girl of age 15 has done to Pakistan that has garnered so much attention. And, this book has a simple answer to all those people who are waiting or expecting to know something about this girl’s fight for girl’s education.

Well this book speaks about length and breadth of the problems that any common Pakistani will face in a day to day life. Without giving much importance to the country’s rotten politics or army’s bad attitude or the constant terror threats and attacks, a regular Pakistani especially those who hail from this remote valley called Swat. She writes about her family and its background in the initial few chapters. She also goes on explaining about Swat and its people and how they are more connected to Afghanistan than Pakistan. She describes the cultural practices of a regular Pashtun household.

Speaking about her daring challenge to the terrorist outfits like Taliban who banned girl’s education in their valley, she was well prepared by her father Ziauddin Yousafzai. He is really a good father and a great human being I can say. He was the one who started the English type school in Swat valley at the very beginning. With regular threats from the local mullah’s and other influential hardcore Islamic people, he stood for what he is capable of and ran a school and became one of the respectable persons in and around the Swat valley and in Pakistan.

When it comes to Malala Yousafzai, she started her work towards the girls’ education rights at a tender age of 11. Like any teenager she was also enjoying her family time and all those happy moments with her family. She loved her little family that consists of her mother, father and her two little brothers Kushal and Atal. Ziauddin Yousafzai named his school after his elder son Kushal. It is one of the famous schools in Swat valley today. Malala started to get attention from the public because of her numerous speeches and interviews she was giving regularly. She often travelled across the Pakistan to spread the message of girl’s education.  

The turning point in her life came in when BBC Urdu was looking out of someone who can give firsthand information about the Swat region when it was under Taliban control. With a strong persuasion from her uncle, Malala started to write for BBC Urdu under the pen name “GUL MAKAY”. This has got some great attention from across the world and of course it also brought Malala under the radar of Taliban. Malala and her family used to receive threats and threat notes from unknown sources about their activities. They went ahead and threatened to bomb their school if they won’t stop the girl’s school. But she wasn't the type of quitters. She managed to do well in getting the attention of their government and was getting support from them to bring education to everyone especially girls.

She also wrote about many other details about the Taliban rule and how people initially supported the group by donating money to them. She writes about few dreaded people like Fazlullah, the radio mullah and other Taliban members. For sure, this book will give us a load of information regarding the Taliban regime.

One point which I thought was very unnecessary was her rant about India. She wrote on many occasions that, India is the greatest enemy of Pakistan and some rubbish details about India and Pakistan relationship. We can ignore this part and move on to read other stuffs.

The stirring details of how Malala was shot by Taliban guy in her school bus and the after incident of her treatment and she was flown to UK is a well-known phenomenon.  She thanked numerous doctors and caretakers from both the countries are a nice gesture. She was under induced coma for almost a week and her fighting spirits to get back on heels is a tremendous journey. She described her injuries and other details in great details which can be read in book.

There is a photography section in the book where she posted some of her pictures from her childhood and few pictures from the hospital where she was taking treatment. It’s a nice way to put all those things.

Overall a great attempt by Malala to write all these things. We all know that there are certain sections of the people who hate her and who love her. Leaving aside all those things, she stands as an inspiration for many young girls in Pakistan and around the world. Their family is living in UK now with a little or no plan of returning to Pakistan in future. May be, one day she would visit Pakistan as a politician which she aspired to become.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #8 - Londonistan By Melanie Phillips

The book LONDONISTAN By Melanie Phillips just depicts the sorry state of Briton and native Britishers. As an Indian I found this book quite relevant to me. Why because, India is one of those country that has faced hundreds of terrorist Or radical terrorists attacks over many years. What is the state of British right now, is the same state that India is being held at. Not only from the outisde terrorist forces, But, rather from inside politicians (read as secular politicians) who tries to appease shamelessly a certain group of people that is causing the terrorism in the name of their religion aspirations.

Having said that, we Indians cannot completely agree on what the author is trying to say here. We need not be showing more empathy towards them. Because, Briton's are experiencing what they have tried on many other countries in last 60 to 70 years.

India being a prime example of such things. It was British who sowed the seed of bifurcating our country into two, emphasizing the need to create a separate Islamic state, which is now Pakistan. It was British who were the prime reason for Hindu-Muslim fights in Pre-Independence years of India. Simply, if all these things can be put in a single line, "As you Sow, So, Shall you Reap!!."

Without a doubt, Britain is a multi-cultural society with lots and lots of immigrants harbouring every year. As the author argues about the native britishers who have turned opposite to their mother land and hobnobbing with the terrorist organizations and planning to attack their own fellow britishers. Author tries to bring in lot of information and ancedotes that is happening in Britain before and after London Terrorist attacks of 2005. This sprouting of home grown, supported Islamic fundamentalism has led to coining the term "LONDONISTAN", which is a pure mockery of state sponsored terrorism as the author tries to justify. 

One such dangerous information from this book, where the author expresses her deep fear that,
"According to British officials, upto sixteen thousand British Muslims either are actively engaged in OR that support terrorist activities. And, scaring figures of upto three thousand is estimated to have passed through Al-Qaeda terrorists camps, with several hundreds are full of vengence against westernism, to attack United Kingdom"

The author tries to tell us that, how all this developped throughout the years in a detailed chapter by chapter. One such issues she raised in chapter 2 is the lousy immigration policies of Britain government for the uncontrolled inflow of people who claims that their prosecution to be happned in their home countries, leaving Britain's police without any choice for longer interrogation of the suspects. This has led many terrorists organizations and radical idiots feel Britain is the safest place to plan and articulate attacks on infidels. She went on blaming the politicians and their sham appeasement policies that is giving terrosists an edge over the police that leads them to escape from the clutches of law. 

To best describe the London terrorists attack in 2005 in her own words, let me paste some of the important sections of the book, that the author describes.

“And the number of terrorists who have come roaring out of these polluted British waters is startling. UK-based terrorists have carried out operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Russia, Spain and the United States. The roll call includes Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, killer of the journalist Daniel Pearl and disaffected, brilliant son of Pakistani immigrants; Dhiren Barot, Nadeem Tarmohammed and Qaisar Shaffi, British citizens and al-Qaeda members who plotted to attack major financial centers in the United States; Mohammad Bilal from Birmingham, who drove a truck loaded with explosives into a police barracks in Kashmir; the “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid, who was converted to Islam at Brixton Mosque in south London; Sajid Badat from Gloucester, a putative second shoe-bomber but who was also caught and is now in jail; and Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Mohammed Hanif, the British boys who helped bomb a Tel Aviv bar in 2003 and killed three Israeli civilians. And let’s not forget Azahari Husin or the “Demolition Man,” the Malaysian engineer who belonged to the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah ( JI). He had studied at Reading University in the 1980s, honed his bomb-making skills in Afghanistan in the 1990s, helped mastermind the terrorist attacks in Bali (twice) and finally blew himself up in a gun battle with Indonesian police in November 2005.”

“One of the world’s most radical Islamist organizations, Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in many countries where it is considered a major threat, has its headquarters in Britain.”

“Scarcely less significant is the European headquarters of the radical proselytizing movement Tablighi Jamaat at Dewsbury in Yorkshire.”

“Al-Sunnah, the Islamist magazine that calls repeatedly for human-bomb terror operations against the United States, is published from London,”

 “Indeed, one could say that it was in Britain that al-Qaeda was actually formed as a movement.”

“Many of Osama bin Laden’s fatwas were first published in London.”

“The foiled millennium plots of 1999 and 2000, when al-Qaeda planned a series of attacks in Europe, the United States and the Middle East, all led back to London.”

One can easily imagine the dire state the Briton's are living under the direct threat of terrorists. At the same time, few questions pops up, why Britain is not taking any actions against these threats ?, For whose benefit they are doing all these things ?, Why the British government is sympathazing these group of people ?, Are there any international pressure that is blocking Biritsh from taking any action ?, etc..

The author went on to give some of the facts and figures about the Native British Muslims and other immigrant muslims opinion about the SHARIA law enforcement in the country. As she quoted in her book 

“A poll conducted by the Guardian newspaper found that 61 percent of British Muslims wanted to be governed by Islamic law, operating on Sharia principles – “so long as the penalties did not contravene British law.” A clear majority wanted Islamic law introduced into Britain in civil cases relating to their own community. In addition, 88 percent wanted to see British schools and workplaces accommodating Muslim prayer times as part of their normal working day.”

Another shocking information from her book regarding the behavior of retail shops and council offices:

“Novelty pig calendars and toys were banned from a council office in case they offended Muslim staff. Ice creams were withdrawn from the Burger King Chain after complaints from Muslims that a whorl design on the lid looked like the word “Allah.” Various councils banned the concept of Christmas, on the grounds that it was “too Christian” and therefore “offensive” to peoples of other faiths”

She also questions the representatives of Muslims in the British. It is not as if there is no one speaking against the fundamentalists, radical Islamists, there is one such person Mansoor Ijaz quotes "It is hypocritical for Muslims living in western societies demanding civil rights enshrined by the state and then excuse their inaction against the terrorists hiding among them on the grounds of belonging to a borderless Islamic community. It is time to stand up and be counted as a modern citizen before the terror consumes all of us."

But all these voice are rather silenced or threatened to get expelled from their religion in the name of FATWA's. This is one such closed decisions, where a progressive thinker, modernists are being threatened and forces them to take back their views and statements.

Well it is a reasonable expectation that the modern day media and its selective journalism. This is very rampant in India and even in Britain it is practiced almost same. Especially when it comes to Islamic terrorism, the media plays a dead ear role and tries to escape from the responsibilites than holding a thoughtful debate which concerns the country. Two such examples that author tries to emphasize is "Theo Van Gough, the Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by terrorist for questioning the Islamic attitudes towards women and freedom of women in Islam" another example is "Over the publication in denmark of cartoons linking the Prophet Mohammed with violence." 

The author also tells us that, the larger number of muslim immigration started in Britain dates back to 30 years earlier. And she also tells that, large number of Muslims might have been migrated from "Pakistan, India and Bangladesh" to work in the cotton mills that dates back to pre-Independence era of India, where a cheap labour was much needed by British themselves. 

Anyone would gets a clear idea that, the author is trying to blame all the Asian countries for what the British has done to themselves. It is their politicians appeasement agenda that is causing the main problem. Their policies on the immigration population needs to be tightened more. Atlast, who has given asylum to Parvez Mushraf when Pakistan had issued him an arrent warrant ??. Rings a bell ?. It is British government who should be held responsible for increase in the terrorist activities.

Author also tries to express her views on the Israel and the Palestine war and the whole Islamic world is backing Palestine, saying, Israel is a false country and Jewish religion is not at a religion at all. She also mentions that, how the Muslims in Britain is staging protest against USA for having friendship with Israel. No one denies the fact the United Kingdom is a close alley of USA diplomatically. This has caused fury over native Muslim Britisher's who demanded British government to urge USA to withdraw their support for Israel and support Palestine to get back their land. This is one of the chapters, where author tries to shed some light on the connections of British Muslims with Middle eastern politics and the threatning them of the terrorists attacks may happen through these kind of issues.

Overall, this book gives any reader a serious thought to ponder over, but nevertheless at the same time, reader would get an impression that the author is a right-wing, nationalist, christian slant. Few sections also emphasizes the same, where author demands that, the country's interests should be brought back and kids should grow in a christined environment. This ain't wrong. But, this leaves a serious repercussions from the radical thinking minds. Also there are few selective interpretations in the book. But, this book leads readers to think about the direction that Britain is currently going. The culpability of politicians, the appeasement dramas and whether it is a Muslim clergy and many intellectuals who wants their community to be held hostage to the philosophy of its fringe, radical, fundamentalists.

My Rating: 4/5