Taliban: the Tip of a Holy Iceberg Paperback – May 16, 2010

Everything you wanted to know about why what is wrong with Islam -- that abysmal present soaked in blood, dependence, hate, ignorance, and failed or failing or drifted states from Asia to Africa to the Middle East -- may be covered in Mobarak Haider's 2008 (Urdu version; English version, 2010) Taliban: The Tip of a Holy Iceberg."Narcissism is a psychic state of extreme subjectivity. The civilizational narcissists have mostly two alternating mental states: either they are perfectly unaware of the role of the world around them or if they are aware, they are sure that it admires or envies them. This infatuation with their own charm renders them totally impervious to the beauty and merit of others. Civilizational narcissism is therefore collective to the extent that all the admirers of their own civilization admire only abstract concepts; no living human or the existing pattern of civilization impresses them."With Pakistani street cred and cosmopolitan ivory tower brights and insight, Haider walks the reader through each dimension of cultural, geopolitical, linguistic, psychological, and social history and thought in laying out the case for an unbridled narcissism as the core component promoting the misery the Muslim Ummah continues to deal to itself and to others in the name of Allah.In addition to the psychology, which I regard as rich and spot-on, Haider's honesty and integrity in scholarship in and of itself stands signal to the kind of change the whole world wants as regards Islam's ability to accept criticism, to develop by first developing itself (through other than alms and arms) and to enjoy -- now these are my words -- the world's present and most assuredly future "cultural polyphony".

Wow wonderful book. Greta read!!! Great book