In this brilliant look at the rise of political,the distinguished political scientists and Anthropplogioist Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to bear on a question many Americans and people else where have been asking since 9/11:how did this happen?Mamdani dispels the ideas of "good"(secular westernized) and "bad"(premodern,fanatical)Muslims, pointing out that these judgements refer to political rather than cultural or religions identities .The presumption that there are "good"Muslims readily available to be split off from "bad" Muslims masks failure to make a political analysis of our times. This book argues that political Islam emerged as the result of modern encounter with Western power,and that the terrorist movement at the centre of Islamist politics is an even more recent phenomenon,one that followed America,s embrace of proxy war after its defeat in Vietnam.Mamdan writes with great insight about the Reagan years showing America,s embrace of the highly ideological politics of "good " against "evil".Identifying militant nationalist goverments as Sovient proxies in countries such as Nicargua and Afaghanistan, the Reagan administration readily backed terrorist movements, hailing them as the "moral equivalents" of America,s Founding Fathers. The era of proxy wars has come to an end with the invasion of Iraq. And there, as Vietnam, America will need to recognize that it is not terrorism but nationalism they are fighting, a battle that cannot be won by accupation. Good Muslim is a provocative and important book that will profoundly change our understanding both of Islamist politics and the way America is perceived in the World today..
