Saudi FM calls Indian, Pakistani counterparts to discuss developments    Al Hilal thrash Gwangju to reach AFC Champions League Elite semi-finals    Saudi Arabia cracks down on fraudulent Hajj campaigns, urges pilgrims to use official channels    Nammos Amala Resort to open soon with Saudi-Greek designs    Saudi Arabia completes 674 Vision 2030 initiatives, achieves 93% of KPIs as ninth-year milestone marked    Literature Commission inaugurates Saudi Pavilion at Muscat Book Fair    Saudi Minister of Culture holds talks with his Costa Rican counterpart in Jeddah    Alkhorayef praises advancements in Al-Kharj food industries sector    MHRSD: 80% of recruitment offices are non-compliant with regulations    At least 50 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza    Teenage girl killed in French school stabbing attack    Trump claims meeting with China after Beijing denies any trade negotiations    GACA chief chairs 16th meeting of the Steering Committee on aviation's strategy    Saudi Theater Commission launches its Work and Learn Project in UK    The season has begun — and one comment shook us all    Jennifer Lopez dazzles in Jeddah with a Formula 1 performance    Saudi Arabia open to expanded 64-team World Cup in 2034, says sports minister    Average life expectancy in Saudi Arabia rises to78.8 years    Film Commission launches 'Cinema' initiative to enhance content    Famed Philippine film star Nora Aunor dies at 71    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Veteran Bollywood actor Manoj Kumar dies at 87    Bollywood actress vindicated over boyfriend's death after media hounding    Grand Mufti rules against posting prayers and preaching in mosques on social media    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Bhutto's last book gives world hope
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 21 - 03 - 2008

Benazir Bhutto penned two books in her lifetime. The first, called “Daughter of Destiny,” published in 1989, was an autobiography of a woman who knew on the day of her father's 1979 hanging that she was meant to lead Pakistan.
The second, “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West,” is her vision of how best to confront rising extremism. Ironically, it was completed on the day of her death. She
sent the final edits of the manuscript to her friend and collaborator Mark A. Siegel on the morning of her assassination Dec. 27.
In the afterword, her husband and children say this: “There was a reason that Allah gave our wife and mother the time to finish this book. This book is about everything that those who killed her could never understand: democracy, tolerance, rationality, hope and, above all, the true message of Islam.”
Bhutto explores all those topics in “Reconciliation,” beginning with her journey back from self-imposed exile to her homeland on Oct. 18, 2007. She said then in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the only thing that will defeat extremism is democracy. That was why she felt the call to stand against President Musharraf, a former army general who came to power through a military coup.
Throughout the book, Bhutto sprinkles references to her government - she was prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and 1993 to 1996 - and perhaps somewhat arrogantly suggests that not just Pakistan, but the entire region might have taken a different course had she been allowed to remain in power. She blames the resurgence of the Taliban, for instance, on Musharraf's inability to influence Pakistan's northern tribal areas and suggests she might have been able to do otherwise.
The first chapter puts the reader in Karachi with Bhutto as she lives through a suicide bomber's attempt to take her life just two days after her return. After that harrowing beginning, Bhutto assumes a role of scholar and historian, taking the reader through an abbreviated history of colonialism and dictatorships that plagued the Islamic world. Equally adept at quoting Western scholars such as Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee as well as verses from the Quran, Bhutto argues that Islam is misunderstood in the West. That, she says, has sprouted flawed policies.
The most spirited chapter in the book is her lashing of Samuel Huntington's 1993 essay, “Clash of Civilizations,” which sparked debate on the inevitability of conflict of cultures. Bhutto reserves her most stinging remarks for “clash” believers, calling their thesis a self-fulfilling prophecy that disregards history and human nature. She says their ideas about Islam are misinformed. “I fear that this work has actually helped provoke the confrontation it predicts,” she writes.
Bhutto's agenda seeps through the entire book but if you can get past the fact that it was written by a former prime minister trying to regain power, it can be enlightening. She makes her readers consider nonmilitary alternatives to combating militancy - and does so convincingly.
Bhutto was, after all, an Oxford-educated debate champion, the daughter of an executed head of state and the first woman to lead a Muslim country. For that she was admired the world over, but most particularly by women in the developing world who have not been afforded the rights they deserve.
But she remains Islam's ardent defender, explaining how cultures and states have taken the Quran out of context as a tool to repress women. And she has harsh words for Somalian-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch parliamentarian who abandoned her own religion and became its harshest critic.
In the end, “Reconciliation” is most amazing not necessarily for what Bhutto argues but because of its author and the circumstances under which the book was written. Her life ended with tragedy but in her last book, she left the world with hope. __


Clic here to read the story from its source.