GOD HAS NINETY NINE NAMES : Reporting from a Militant Middle East

Rating:
Summary: Good Short Course for the Previously Uninformed
Review: A good overview of the forces that have shaped militant Islamic movements in the Middle East & North Africa over the last several decades, along with a brief history of about a dozen countries in the region.

Although I can appreciate some of the criticisms leveled at Ms. Miller by other Amazon reviewers ("lacks depth" - e.g., it's a different read than something by Robert Kaplan), "God Has Ninety-Nine Names" does provide those who know relatively little about the region with an opportunity to quickly learn about the history of, and pre-1996 developments in, countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, etc. If you don't have the time to delve deeply into the history of the region and its religions, politics, economics, etc., spending a week reading this book will still afford you a much more intelligent analysis of what you're viewing on television nightly.

Although some Amazon reviewers have been highly critical of Ms. Miller and her NY Times pedigree, Ms. Miller, who lived and worked in the region for 25 years and was the Times' Cairo bureau chief, has assembled a relatively cohesive work using an array of interviews with the region's most notable political and religious figures. I think she is to be commended for her effort and for not being afraid to be critical of certain things that are happening in the Muslim world. Contrary to what some reviewers thought about her Arabic, I got the impression from the book that she did speak Arabic as well as French, but perhaps not fluently (thus the use of translaters for some of her interviews).

One drawback is that the book was published in 1996 and thus omits a discussion of developments since that time.

Rating:
Summary: Skip all the one-star reviews
Review: After reading this book I read most of the customer reviews and the controversy baffles me. Ms. Miller has written an honest account based on her long expeiences in the Middle East as a journalist. She does not purport to be a historian but does a more than credible job giving historical background information. If you are looking for a scholarly text look elsewhere. If you are an average person, with interest in this remote and troubled part of the world the insights are terrific. She goes from country to country, explaining the countries relationship with it's own dissent and it's impact on the Middle East and the rest of the world. Ms. Miller tells it has she saw it and considering the horrific events, and the aftermath of 9/11, quite on target. Bin Laden is mentioned only once, this is about ALL the radical movements hiding in various countries that have one common thread, they detest Israel and the United States and it's westernization or modernization of the Middle East. Whether it is the Muslim Brotherhood or some other clandestine terrorist organization, they are one and the same for the most part. I found that I couldn't put his book down as I listened to Judith Miller's narrative of the various radical Islamic countries movements. Is it a western view? Yes. Is it biased? No, she is reporting and sheding light on a topic from a non-militant point of view. All the critics aside, I would recommend anyone who wants to know more about and sort out the differences in the ten countries covered to seek out this book. Get this book for a good concise overview of the radical movements that are threatening their own region and are trying to destabalize the world with terrorism and a call for jihad.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and alarming look at Islamic militancy
Review: I am no authority on Islam or the Middle East, but when I picked up Miller's book, I found myself spellbound by her description of the developing events in Egypt, Libya, Iran, Sudan, Algeria, Israel and Syria. Her journalistic portraits were never short of fascinating and the reality she portrays of a growing Islamic militancy as a potent political force in these countries quite alarming. The pandemic hatred of Israel, Jews, and the United States is shocking -- not in the knowledge that it exists, but in its intensity. When I finished God Has Ninety-Nine Names, I read (reviews) and was surprised to learn the controversy surrounding the text. The most vicious among her critics is the respected intellectual Professor Edward Said. However, I have to quote from Edward Said savaging of Judith Miller to show just how clueless he apparently was of the danger of religiously-motivated terrorism. In 1996, he wrote in The Nation: " Never mind that most Islamic countries today are too poverty-stricken, tyrannical and hopelessly inept militarily as well as scientifically to be much of a threat to anyone except their own citizens; and never mind that the most powerful of them -- like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Pa kistan -- are totally within the U.S. orbit. ...The Islamic threat is made to seem disproportionately fearsome, lending support to the thesis (which is an interesting parallel to anti-Semitic paranoia) that there is a worldwide conspiracy behind every explosion. " I doubt Mr. Said would have the audacity to make these claims again in the aftermath of September 11th. History has shown that Miller's analysis was not only thoroughly researched and credible but also, sadly, right on target. God Has Ninety-Nine Names is an important book. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: More of a fictional novel than a report...
Review: I have to be truethful. I will make this review on an authored product without being baised, however, some of the stories she mentioned is really what is being traded in the middle east, but it doesn't mean it is truthful:
1. Text for each country was not fragmented for easy reading or reference. More of information flow and then overload.
2. Based on the above remark, the table of contents is not helpful.
3. Footnotes at the end of the book contains more stories and comments rather that references to sources she used for the information she referenced. These comments should've been in the original text itself.
4. As she stated in the introduction, more of her information are based on interviews. This meaning, these chats provided her with a lot of the stories she mentioned. Meaning that she has no reliable resources to support all the allegations she made. It was all rumers and hearsay.
5. She has a tendency to to put descriptions to every event. This is not what a reported should do. Her role is only to report not to comment. Things like: NAIVE request, PRE-ISLAMIC setting, GREADY acuisition, etc. I really question her reporting. It is more of reporting on her FEELINGS that what is really out there. New York Times reporting is also in question here because of her.
6. No one can have all that information about so many countries without actually living in them. Since she didn't, she wishes to convince people that all the information is correct.
7. She ventured into a very dangerous area that she proved having no business going there: Islam and Prophet Mohammed. Appearantly most of the information she mentioned were false and invalid. Also she relied on Western resources for this information which is not a good researcher ethic to invest in time to read materials supporting and unbaised of whatever issues he is researching. Again, information on Propher Mohammed is mostly FALSE.
I do not think I gave justice to this book in these comments. There are more. If you fancy reading stories and you understand it may be more fiction that real, then you can read this book to see how contraversial is the middle east (the old world). Regards to all,

Rating:
Summary: Rich descriptor of the middle east
Review: Indispensable for Middle East watchers, Miller's eye-opening, firsthand report begins in Sudan in 1985 with the jubilant public execution of Mahmoud Taha, founder of a nonviolent Islamic reformist group. His conviction for sedition and heresy by a militant Muslim regime that commits appalling crimes, she observes, should serve as a warning to other Middle Eastern states tempted to institute theocratic rule. In virtually every country she visited-Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.-Miller, New York Times correspondent and former Cairo bureau chief, found that the appeal of fundamentalist, militant Islam was growing, though it was often brutally suppressed, as in Algeria, where a war raging between the secular government and armed Islamic radicals has claimed an estimated 40,000 lives. In Israel in 1993, she interviewed a terrorist of the Muslim group Hamas and met with members of the largely nonviolent Islamic movement, which was increasingly divided over whether Arabs should integrate into Israeli society or pursue cultural and institutional separatism. Her trenchant observations on Libya, Lebanon, Jordan and Iran round out a compelling odyssey.

Rating:
Summary: A Splendid Look At Islamic Militants in the Middle East
Review: Judith Miller gives a whirlwind tour of Islamic militant movements throughout most of the Middle East that is both sobering and enlightening. She does an excellent job showing the rise of Islamic fundamentalist movements in countries as diverse as Egypt, Jordan, Algeria and Iran. Her mesmerizing account of the origins of both Islam and of the Saudi royal family in Saudi Arabia, is the book's finest chapter, noting Islam's early prejudice against Jews and the close ties between the fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam and the Saudi royal family. She singles out Sudan as well as Iran as cautionary tales of modern Islamic theocracies. To her credit, she spends much of the book recounting her conversations with noted writers, artists, enlightened rulers like Jordan's King Hussein as well as despots ruling Libya and Sudan, and with those from the so-called "Arab street", lower class merchants and taxi drivers, to name but a few. "God Has Ninety-Nine Names" ends with a thoughtful conclusion; Miller echoes noted Middle East historian Bernard Lewis, calling on Islamic intellectuals to look inward, asking why their societies are rife with poverty and corruption, instead of blaming the West for their countries' ills. Although this book may seem a bit dated, it is still relevant, and quite essential for understanding why the West is hated by some in the Middle East.

Rating:
Summary: Rich descriptor of the middle east
Review: The author seems to draw conclusions that the ineptitude of the Arab leaders of today are somehow caused by the tenets of Islam and the teachings of its prophet, which patently is absurd. Most western readers are not aware of the fact that while all of Christian Europe was in the dark ages, the intellectual culture of the early greeks and Romans was being preserved and expanded upon by the Muslims. The Muslims have made tremendous contributions in the areas philosophy, art, poetry, astronomy, medicine, etc. If the religion was flawed, as Miller suggests, this period of flourishing would not be possible. The situation as it exists in the Middle East today is one that is perpetuated by the west (i.e. U.S.) in order to maintain their oil interests. Miller clearly lacks 1) an objective perspective, and 2) any inkling of knowledge regarding the history of Islam and Islamic culture.

Rating:
Summary: New Bottle, Old Wine
Review: This is a thrid-rate cobbling together of age-old stereotypes and shallow generalizations with the most horrible, indigestible prose. Those who actually thought this book was useful obviously know nothing about the region or its people. This is a perfect book for the hopelessly ignorant who obviously are unaware of Miller's reputation, which, once again, was put into the limelight thanks to her recent invention of the Iraqi WMDs.

Rating:
Summary: This is shallow analysis. Don't buy!
Review: This is a very lousy book. It is a failing attempt to imitate Tom Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem. It is full of mistakes. Don't waste your money or your time buying it and reading it.
To illustrate what I mean by full of mistakes; take the chapter that discusses Lebanon, for instance.
The author talks about Iranians teaching children martyrdom in Shiite schools in South Lebanon. How could Persian-speaking Iranians communicate with Arabic-speaking Shiite youngsters? The author doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference.
This is not to belittle Iran's role in building Hizbullah in Lebanon, but Judith got it all with a wrong reasoning. She knows most of what happened, but she can barely explain why this did happen. When she comes up with words of wisdom, they prove to be unfit.
Another drawback in this book is Miller's assumption or her targeting of an audience that is not familiar with the Middle East at all. Whatever issue she mentions, she gives loads of quick surveys as background information. This becomes boring while the information she provides seem shallow for readers familiar with the Middle East.
Finally, even though Miller has a good journalistic style, such a style doesn't necessarily look good when writing a book that is a mixture of history and politics of a region with the biggest number of versions of the most complicated stories of the world's history.