Malise Ruthven, who once wrote perceptive books on the sociology of religion, denounces Berman in its pages. (I suppose it was asking too much to expect a rave review in the circumstances.) He has no time for Berman's argument that Islamism was something new in Islam's history because it was an amalgamation of religion with ideas and methods taken from European totalitarianism. And, by extension, no time for the notion that the victims of Islamism are the victims of clerical fascist movements.
Berman is guilty of "ignoring nuances", Ruthven says gravely. He constructs a crude "totalitarian model" to explain the thinking of al-Banna's Muslim Brotherhood and Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jama'at-e-Islami, the Brotherhood's South Asian sister party.
In 1991, he was able to recognise totalitarianism and call it by its real name. In 2010, he condemns those who follow the example of his younger and better self. Like so many others, he has boarded the train. I hope that a few of his fellow-passengers will jump off soon, while accepting that the lesson of history is that most of them will.
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