The World From Islam
By George Negus
Harper Collins, 256 pp, $29.95

By Ted Lapkin

One of the most useless additions to this literary crop comes from the pen of noted ABC television host and commentator George Negus. Entitled The World from Islam, Negus has written a superficial piece of puffery that fluctuates in tone between the two poles of sanctimony and sycophancy.

It is difficult to decide what is worse about The World from Islam, what it excludes, or what it includes. It is bad enough that Negus tends to elide all mention of anything that might undermine his fawning portrayal of contemporary Muslim society. Yet, equally as serious is his tendency to airbrush the less edifying facets of Islamic culture that are too notorious for him to ignore.

From the get go, Negus makes it clear that he’s a man with a mission to lift the scales of ignorance from the eyes of a biased and ethnocentric West. In his book’s Prologue, Negus declares that "we in the West might get further by attempting at least to talk them around, not by berating and haranguing them jingoistically about how superior our Western non-Muslim values are."

George Negus leaves us in no doubt as to where the primary onus of responsibility for this tension between the Islamic world and the West should rest – firmly on the shoulders of Israel and the United States. The book is replete with sarcastic references to the "so-called war against terror." Indeed, this is a work in which the propensity to exculpate the Islamic world for its sins is only exceeded by its animosity towards Zionism and the policies of the Bush Administration.

Yet, beyond all else, The World from Islam demolishes any credibility that George Negus might have otherwise enjoyed as a critical commentator on Middle East issues. From almost the first page to last, Negus complaisantly accepts the most ridiculous theories and fallacious contentions from his Arab interlocutors without the slightest demurrer or protest.

In the Prologue to his book, Negus informs us of a discussion he conducted with an Arab-Muslim acquaintance several months prior to the war in Iraq. "If you in the West want to get rid of Saddam," said the friend, "just ask and we [Arabs] will help you." Of course, the patent absurdity of this declaration should be self-evident, in light of the Arab world’s long toleration of Ba’athist brutality in Iraq.

But, then, the conversation descends from implausibility into farce when Negus’ interlocutor seriously proposes that a delegation of global leaders should travel to Baghdad to conduct direct talks with the Iraqi dictator. "Bush, Blair, Schroeder, Chirac, Putin…" and others should simply fly to Iraq without any military escort, then take a "fleet of taxis" from the airport to Saddam’s palace compound and declare "we want to negotiate."

Yet, the manner in which George Negus reacts to this nonsensical proposal is particularly interesting. Rather than challenging its rank inanity on the spot, or at least highlighting its improbability in the book, Negus tars himself with the brush of puerility by describing his friend’s viewpoint as "prescient." George Negus then proceeds to grant no small measure of credence to this fatuous scheme, responding "not entirely facetiously" to a concept that he thinks is only "ostensibly outlandish."

Then, Negus brings his own views on the Iraq crisis to the fore, intoning sententiously: "but apparently negotiation was out of the question. And we’ll never know if it might have made a difference, if one of the most inhumane periods in recent world history could have been avoided."

Yet, the most cursory acquaintance with recent Middle East history reveals that negotiations with Saddam Hussein were attempted ad nauseum. For twelve long years the international community tried diplomacy, sanctions and other forms of non-military pressure in an attempt to force the Ba’athist dictator to comply with his obligations. And, yet, all they got from Saddam Hussein in return was obstructionism, evasiveness and prevarication.

Moreover, it was precisely the military action so abhorred by Negus that brought an end to "one of the most inhumane periods in recent world history" – the Ba’athist tyranny that murdered over 500,000 Iraqis. The only way Saddam Hussein was ever going to relinquish power was at the business end of an American bayonet. Apparently Negus would have preferred the perpetuation of Saddam’s rule, even if the methods used by that regime to remain in power included the gang rape of little girls to extract political confessions from parents.

Instead, Manjibe begins to regurgitate perverted conspiracy theories that are endemic to the Islamic Middle East. We learn that the Arabs bear absolutely no responsibility at all for the dearth of democracy in their 22 nations. "It’s the West who puts these [autocratic Arab] leaders on their thrones," opines Manjibe.

And, who, pray tell, are the arch-puppet masters who pull the strings in the US? Well, according to this "Muslim democrat" from Oman, "the Jewish lobby is a big influence" that "will not renew George Bush to be president next election." America "is a super power to the whole world, but you cannot criticise the Jews in Washington! You’d be out of your office in three hours," he declares with exasperation. Moreover, Manjibe believes that Arab governments quietly acquiesce to an unjust American war against terrorism because their "Tel Aviv" bosses, "use their money" to impose silence on the Middle East.

And in a piece de resistance worthy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Manjibe smoothly transitions from one classic anti-Semitic stereotype to another. Thus, we are informed that the secret of the success enjoyed by this Judaic web of invisible power is attributable to innate Jewish shrewdness and financial ruthlessness. "They know how to market it, those [Jewish] guys."

Given the ubiquity of anti-Jewish sentiment throughout the Arab world, it is hardly surprising that such crude conspiracy-ridden canards surface in these conversations. Yet, it is disturbing that Negus allows such paranoia and unregenerate bigotry to pass without challenge. Indeed, discomfort turns to outright shock and disgust when Negus appears to concur with elements of this Judeophobic mythology.

Negus seems to agree that the dearth of Arab democracy is all the fault of those evil Yankee imperialists. Never mind that this patronising perspective reeks of a condescension that infantilises Arabs by reducing them to the status of easily manipulated children who can’t be expected to take responsibility for their own fate. Then, Negus actually adds his voice to the chorus of complaints about malign Jewish influence over world events. "We certainly know that the Jewish lobby is powerful," he responds in affirmation to Manjibe’s wild theories of a kosher conspiracy in Washington D.C.

"You don’t really have to live in Gaza’s daily nastiness to recognise the roots of Palestinian Muslim enmity and hatred," opines Negus. But it helps to have seen it… Seeing is believing and believing just might bring understanding," he continues. "Palestinians aren’t angry and vengeful for no reason."

Negus then proceeds to extrapolate that line of thought to within a hair’s breadth of its logical destination – a justification for terrorism against Israelis. Thus, he skirts with utter nihilism by describing Palestinian suicide bombings as a phenomenon that is "irrational, but verging on the understandable."

Seeking further elucidation on suicide bombings, Negus consults the writing of Ashraf al Ajrami, who is described in the book as "a Palestinian Arab, not an antagonistic Jew." Al Ajrami explains that Palestinian suicide bombers are motivated by a desire to avoid "a life of misery when Paradise can be reached by the mere press of a button..." Nothing particularly new in that observation.

But, Negus takes this rather pedestrian bit of analysis as the foundation for a cognitive quantum leap that propels him straight into the mother of all non sequiturs. "Whatever your reaction to this [Al Ajrami’s] explanation," says Negus, "it pours cold water on any suggestion that the bombers carry out their atrocious acts for no reason [sic] or because of some innate homicidal tendency [sic] or uncontrollable hatred of Jews."

But, in reality, Al Ajrami’s explication proves nothing of the sort, and Negus’ desperate intellectualised contortions are refuted by both Arab rhetoric and deeds. Moreover, Negus studiously avoids mentioning the fact that rampant poverty in Gaza, is due, in no small measure, to the endemic corruption that permeates every level of a kleptocratic Palestinian Authority.

When one reads those portions of The World from Islam that deal with the Middle East conflict, every paragraph provides bounteous evidence of Negus’ hard core pro-Palestinian partiality. Thus, Negus describes Suha Arafat as "remarkable," ignoring her propensity for making wildly false accusations about Israel using poison gas against Palestinian children. Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000 is also erroneously described as a "sacrilegious invasion of the al-Aqsa Mosque." And so on…

For want of space, I have only been able to deal with a small proportion of the distortions, half-truths and erroneous assertions that pervade this book. But, I have cited enough material to demonstrate that George Negus is afflicted by what might fairly be described as "T.E. Lawrence Syndrome." This ideological condition is characterised by an uncritical affection for the Arab world that is complemented by an unreasoning hostility towards Israel. Suffice it to say that the only real value in The World from Islam is as a clinical primer on such bias and its pitfalls.