How Extremist Outfits Managed to Scar the Face of a Faith
Mirza Asmer Beg
FAULT LINES IN THE FAITH: HOW EVENTS OF 1979 SHAPED THE ISLAMIC WORLD by By Iqbal S. Hasnain Rupa Publications, New Delhi, 2023, 287 pp., INR 395.00
August 2024, volume 48, No 8

According to Iqbal S Hasnain, three events in 1979 contributed to shaping the course of Islamic history. The first was the Islamic Revolution in Iran which divided the Islamic world on sectarian lines. Second was the Juhayman incident in Mecca which led to the coming together of the ideologies of Salafism and Muslim Brotherhood, and the third was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which led to the globalization of Islamic Jihad. The author has tried to analyse these events and look at their consequences.

Hasnain straightaway claims that Islam got enmeshed in the cycle of global terrorism under the influence of the radical Salafi ideology. He argues that Saudi Arabia aggressively promoted the Wahhabi-Salafi puritanical Islam to counter the revival of Shiite Islam after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Wahhabism, he asserts, has a deep hatred for Shias and Sufi Sunni Muslims.

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