Holy Lands
Reviving Pluralism in the Middle East
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
How did the world’s most tolerant region become the least harmonious place on the planet?
The news from the Middle East these days is bad. Whatever hopes people may have for the region are being dashed over and over, in country after country. Nicolas Pelham, a veteran correspondent for The Economist, has seen much of the tragedy first hand, but in Holy Lands he presents a strikingly original and startlingly optimistic argument.
The Middle East was notably more tolerant than Western Europe during the nineteenth century, because the Ottoman Empire permitted a high degree of religious pluralism and self-determination within its vast borders. European powers broke up the empire and tried to turn it into a collection of secular nation-states; it was a spectacular failure. Rulers turned religion into a force for nationalism and the result has been ever increasing sectarian violence. The solution, Pelham argues, is to accept the Middle East for the deeply religious region it is, and try to revive its tradition of pluralism.
Holy Lands is a work of vivid reportage—from Turkey and Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Bahrain and Jordan—that is animated by a big idea. It makes a region that is all too familiar from news reports feel fresh.
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Pelham (A New Muslim Order) poses a troubling question: Can a region once known for its vibrant pluralism and religious cooperation return from the brink of sectarianism and a cycle of hyper-nationalistic violence? He recounts distressing vignettes from the Middle East before offering a nostalgic and analytic recommendation for remedy that emerges from the region's own history. To make his case, Pelham surveys snapshots of tension from Israel to Iran and Iraq to Turkey, juxtaposed with anecdotes of a fragile hope that are rising out of the rubble of lost history and recent regional turmoil. Proposing that hyper-nationalism and a legacy of Western incursion are particularly problematic, Pelham suggests that a return to a form of Ottoman militocracy might prove the pacifier. The reportage is well-grounded in textured life histories, interviews, and relevant historical narratives and statistics. Pelham offers impressively nuanced interpretations of entangled political rivalries and the hazy religious boundaries that crisscross the Middle East. Readers will find his investigation of the region's intolerance and aspirations for peace refreshing, particularly in the context of increasingly pessimistic headlines and political rhetoric.
