Parallel Roads to Ruin
Islamism, Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine
A vivid account of Zionism and Islamism’s deadly embrace.
Description
Zionism and Islamism both emerged in response to oppression and injustice, aiming to bring dignity, freedom and security to the downtrodden followers of one of the world’s great religions. Yet both have since created oppression and injustice and used violence to attain their goals, fomenting bitter hatreds. These led directly to the horrifying October 7 attacks and ensuing destruction of Gaza.
John McHugo calls for a radical rethink of these two ideologies. Tracing the problematic relationship of Europe and ‘the West’ with Jews and Muslims, from the Middle Ages to nineteenth-century nationalism to today, he shows how the Israel–Palestine conflict stained both movements indelibly. He focuses on the personalities involved as much as their ideas—from Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin and Benjamin Netanyahu to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Sayyid Qutb, Shaykh Ahmad Yassin and Osama bin Laden.
Only by confronting the unwelcome facts of this intertwined history can lasting peace and fundamental rights be secured—and the downward spiral towards disaster reversed.
Table of contents
Glossary
Note On Terminology
Part One
Introduction
Chapter One: Jews And Muslims in Europe at The Dawn of Nationalism
Chapter Two: The Jew Who Never Met the Muslim
Chapter Three: The Muslim Who Never Met the Jew
Chapter Four: The Coming of Dr Chaim Weizmann Page
Chapter Five: The Frustration of Arab Democracy
Chapter Six: The Leaders Who Created the Jewish State
Chapter Seven: The Moral Dilemma at The Heart of Zionism
Chapter Eight: The Souring of The Islamic Revival
Chapter Nine: From Islamic Revival to Political Islam
Chapter Ten: How Islamism Came to Palestine
Chapter Eleven: The Infliction of Unbearable Wounds
Part Two
Chapter Twelve: The Failure to Make Peace
Chapter Thirteen: Sayyid Qutb’s Journey from His Village
Chapter Fourteen: Religious Zionism
Chapter Fifteen: Did Zionism Prevent Peace?
Chapter Sixteen: Palestine, Transnational Jihad, And the Varieties of Islamism
Excursus: Suicide Bombing
Chapter Seventeen: The Road To 7 October – The Route of Benjamin Netanyahu
Chapter Eighteen: The Road To 7 October – The Route of Hamas
Chapter Nineteen: Conclusion: Parallel Roads to Ruin
Acknowledgements
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Author(s)
After studying Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Oxford and the American University in Cairo in the 1970s, John McHugo practised international law in the Middle East, where his work during the 1980s and 1990s concentrated on boundary disputes between sovereign states. In the early 2000s, he turned his attention to studying and writing about the history of the Middle East and Islam. His books include A Concise History of Sunnis and Shi‘is; A Concise History of the Arabs; and Syria: A Recent History.
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