Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West | 
| Author: Benazir Bhutto
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 5674
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061567582
Dewey Decimal Number: 297.272
EAN: 9780061567582
ASIN: 0061567582
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
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Product Description
Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after eight years of exile, hopeful that she could be a catalyst for change. Upon a tumultuous reception, she survived a suicide-bomb attack that killed nearly two hundred of her countrymen. But she continued to forge ahead, with more courage and conviction than ever, since she knew that time was running out—for the future of her nation, and for her life. In Reconciliation, Bhutto recounts in gripping detail her final months in Pakistan and offers a bold new agenda for how to stem the tide of Islamic radicalism and to rediscover the values of tolerance and justice that lie at the heart of her religion. With extremist Islam on the rise throughout the world, the peaceful, pluralistic message of Islam has been exploited and manipulated by fanatics. Bhutto persuasively argues that America and Britain are fueling this turn toward radicalization by supporting groups that serve only short-term interests. She believed that by enabling dictators, the West was actually contributing to the frustration and extremism that lead to terrorism. With her experience governing Pakistan and living and studying in the West, Benazir Bhutto was versed in the complexities of the conflict from both sides. She was a renaissance woman who offered a way out. In this riveting and deeply insightful book, Bhutto explores the complicated history between the Middle East and the West. She traces the roots of international terrorism across the world, including American support for Pakistani general Zia-ul-Haq, who destroyed political parties, eliminated an independent judiciary, marginalized NGOs, suspended the protection of human rights, and aligned Pakistani intelligence agencies with the most radical elements of the Afghan mujahideen. She speaks out not just to the West, but to the Muslims across the globe who are at a crossroads between the past and the future, between education and ignorance, between peace and terrorism, and between dictatorship and democracy. Democracy and Islam are not incompatible, and the clash between Islam and the West is not inevitable. Bhutto presents an image of modern Islam that defies the negative caricatures often seen in the West. After reading this book, it will become even clearer what the world has lost by her assassination.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Profound book autographed for us in blood May 12, 2008
This is a wonderfully written book with clear expositions in 318 pages regarding common misinterpretations of the Koran, which does not exclude other religions that believe in the same one God. She shows us how we need to recast ourselves to promote our democracy as the way to achieve peaceful coexistence of different religious and ethnic groups, through education and cooperation in economic development. She gives a very moving account of the many difficulties she had in trying to get a real democracy in Pakistan, and the multiple blocks and attempts on her life. The scope of her book is large and analyzes the conditions in many different cultures. She ends with many reasonable solutions to some of our problems. I only hope that our legislators read this profound, very moving,and clear book!!
Very interesting reading about islam and westv April 30, 2008
This book really opened my eyes about the content of Islam as well as the politics pursued by west in other countries. I would really recommend it to everybody as it really gives a perspective! Furthermore, it makes one realize what a fantastic person Benazir was and what the world really lost when she was assassinated last year.
 Informative but no Insightful April 21, 2008
I was excited to read this book, but unfortunately it seems that the description given on the cover hyped it up a bit too much. I was hoping for more insight into Bhutto's views and her life, but unfortunately I didn't get much of either.
I enjoyed the first portion of the book, which is about the Quran and defuses some misconceptions people may have about Islam. The book in general, and the first part more specifically, relies a lot on works and
ideas produced by others which, while not what I had expected to find, I would prefer by themselves than with the commentary of Bhutto, which often seems flimsy. One such example of the flimsiness of Bhutto's assertion is when she equates archaic practices found in the Quran to those found in the Bible, her example being the stoning of adulterers. She leaves out the portion of the Bible when Jesus condemns the practice, which if included would rob her argument of its power.
In many places it is much too long. Her simple conclusions are supported with pages of drolling and usually repetitive historical information about virtually every country to have ever come in contact with the West.
Even in the last two sections, which would seem to require her input, she relies heavily on the conclusions of others, to which she adds flimsy additions, such as her assertion that the recent wave of terrorism across the world is not based on an Islam vs. The West mentality, but rather extremism versus moderation. I think the fact that madrassas and organizations such as Hezbullah spew hateful anti-West rhetoric on almost a daily basis takes the wind out of Bhutto's sails.
Although it is coherent and thoroughly researched, this book is a waste of time. Bhutto spends too much time supporting her ideas with repetitive examples that, after a certain point, become unnecessary. Her meager intellectual additions to the book are almost not worth reading. While I admire and agree with her message of reconciliation, I don't think that this book does effective job at achieving it.
The book is well-written with a noble purpose, but it is not an engaging read and will often leave you bored.
dishonest book from the latest head of the family that destroyed Pakistan March 31, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Reconciliation is a worthless book written to please the author's supporters in the west. The truth is that Bhutto and her entire family have never stood for "democracy". Rather, for multiple generations they have stood for a corrupt version of populism that over the decades has brought Pakistan to the brink of destruction.
Her father was the architect of two disasterous wars with India and brought about the civil war that ended in the dismemberment of Pakistan. Benazir, building on her father's legacy pursued a covert wars with India over Kashmir and greenlighted the creation of the Taliban. Over three generations, the Bhuttos have undermined any possiblity of democracy in Pakistan by turning one of the main political parties into their personal family posession.
But what does the book say? The book talks of the evils of dictatorship and western influence. The claims about dictatorship might be taken as remotely serious but for the sad fact that the Bhutto fortune and political legacy were originally built on their service to a military dicatator. There is also understandably no understanding or admission that the corrupt version of "democracy" associated with her family has promoted extreme Islam.
Most of her analysis of Pakistani history is self-serving and false. Her goal at all times is to protect the corrupt legacy of failure associated with her own relatives. She puts them up as the democratic alternative to Islamic extremists. She does this of course without revealing the anti-democratic origins of her political party or her father's role in driving Bengaledesh out of Pakistan through violence. She is also dishonest about the origins of the Taliban and "islamic extremism". She would rather blame (as her father did) the military rather than tell the truth about the corrupt commerical interests who were behind support for the Taliban. The intelligence services were the means but the end was willed by Pakistani trucking and other business interests.
Her views on Islam are incredibly bad. In her world, its the Ulema thats the problem. She favors an individualist interpretation of Islam no doubt so that the Ulema can be eliminated as a source of criticism for her party machine. The argument will go over very well with her western sponsors though because its what they want to hear.
She also parrots back to the western audience of the book their views on Islam. None of what she says is credible and none of it would be said at home in Pakistan. But her sponsors in Washington and London will eat up every word.
Bhutto's untimely death proved yet again what the real game here is. With her death, the party passed as a family posession to the next generation. Even though that next generation was a 19 year old child. That is the contradiction in the book among the Bhuttos. Democracies are not created by political parties whose leadership is passed generation after generation from parent to child. That is rather something like a monarchy. Pakistan will only begin to progress when the family politics that the Bhuttos represent disappears.
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West March 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very absorbing and insightfull. Benazir Bhutto was an amazing, brave women in a hostile country. With her assassination, Muslim World lost one of the bravest and charismatic leader who had great potential of bringing change in the muslim world and specially in Pakistan. She was the last hope for Pakistan but would definitely be remembered as a historical leader who gave life for the cause of democracy and moderate Islam. I hope this book will remove some of the misconceptions of the West about Islam and Democracy in the muslim world.
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