Benazir Bhutto: Reconciliation -Islam, Democracy, & the West

• Bangulzai

  3 Mar 09, 00:07

  Benazir Bhutto
  ______________
  Reconciliation
  Islam, Democracy, and the West

  This is a very good book for people who wants to learn more about religion n the current situation of terrorism with respect to Islam.

  Chapters
  1 The Path Back
  2 The Battle Within Islam: Democracy Versus Dictatorship, Moderation Versus Extremism
  3 Islam And Democracy: History And Practice
  4 The Case Of Pakistan
  5 Is The Clash Of Civilizations Inevitable?
  6 Reconciliation

  The whole of the book is not an autobiography (like many other books on Benazir). The contents of the book was a collaboration with the author Mark Siegel who helped took down notes for her and can be considered completed before Benazir was assasinated. It seems to me that Benazir deep down in her guts knew that she will be assassinated, therefore hastened to complete the whole book. I read with sadness throughout, because while reading I can feel Benazir as a very strong woman who sacrificed herself in the modern male-dominated Islamic society.

  The current situation in Pakistan is a mess (eg. the beautiful SWAT valley in now totally under the Pakhtun's and Taliban's control already). You can follow-up more about the current situation of Pakistan in the internet after reading Benazir's Reconciliation.

  I bought this book about 3 months ago from popular. Has soft cover (black cover - smaller) and hard cover (brown cover - bigger) versions. Hard cover price roughly $42++, soft cover $24.45. Soft cover & hard cover from different publishers, but content of the 2 books is exactly the same, down to every wording, spacing, and pagination. This book can be found also at Harris, Times, and maybe other places.

  I strong recommend anyone with interest to current world situation to read this book, but no doubt be open to contradicting views out there, as there are many anti-Benazir propaganda in the media too. Also, when reading the portion regarding the independence fight of the Awami League for Bangladesh, take note of Benazir's tone (i feel that she preferred to tone this portion down).

  The book cannot be found in any national libraries as yet.

  My Readability Rating (for people interested in this area of topic): / out of 5

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  Some praises for the book

  "This is one of the most gripping and important books of our era. It's a powerful personal narrative of an astonishingly brave woman. It's also a brilliant manisfesto for challenging radical Islam. Benazir Bhutto was an intense but charming woman driven by a crucial mission. Her death makes this beautiful book all the more poignant, and also more necessary." -Walter Isaacson

  "This is a courageous and powerful answer to hatred and intolerance, written by an extraordinary woman. Reading Benazir Bhutto's Reconciliation shows just how much we lost with her death. You'll finish it and mourn for what might have been." -Arianna Huffington

  "Pakistan has become the critical battlefield in the so-called war on terror. Reconciliation is the story of a courageous woman and her struggle for democracy and moderation in Islam. Benazir Bhutto, not the extremists who killed her, represented the vast majority of Pakistani Muslims, and this book is a reminder of how much we have lost." -Peter Galbraith

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  My most memorable excerpt from the book:

   "About thirty minutes before I went down to loosen my sandals in the compartment on the lower deck of the truck, I saw a man holding up a baby. The baby was dressed in PPP colors and was about one of two years old. The man gesticulated repeatedly to me to take the baby. I gesticulated to the crowd to make way for him. But when the crowd parted, the man would not come forward. Instead he would try to hand the baby to someone in the crowd. Worried that the baby would fall and be trampled upon or be lost, I would gesticulate no, you bring the baby to me. Finally he pointed to the security guard. I asked the security guard to let him up on the truck. However by the time he came to the truck, I was going to the compartment. Agha Siraj Durrani, a PPP parliamentarian, was watching the access to the truck by the stair. When the man tried to hand the baby up the truck, Agha Siraj told him to get lost. The man then went to a policemobile to the left of the truck, which refused to take the baby. The man moved to the policemobile in front of the first. A woman councilor of the PPP, Rukhsana Faisal Boloch, was on this mobile, as was a cameraman. As the man tried to hand the baby to the second policemobile, the first policemobile made an announcement: "Don't take the baby, don't take the baby, don't let the baby up on the truck." Both these policemobiles were exactly parallel to where I was sitting in the armored truck. We suspect the baby's clothes were lined with plastic explosives. As the man scuffled with the police in the van to hand the baby over, the first explosion took place on the van. Everyone in that van was killed, as were those around it. Human flesh, blood, and body pieces flew everywhere. The blood and gore rose up to the truck, sticking to the clothes, hair, and hands of the people I had been standing up with earlier...."

  (note: PPP stands for Pakistan's Peoples Party, led by Benazir herself)