15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars Cold,hard,frightening truth, March 5, 2002
Reviewer: timothy hilliard (see more about me) from America

In his travels throughout the Islamic world,Naipaul documented prevailing attitudes and a worldview that has finally hit home with the West. The point cannot be missed by anyone who reads this book that Islamic fundamentalism is essentially the longing for time to reverse itself so that the glory days of the old world may return again. This is symptomatic of many of the hellish regimes and political movements of the 20th century.In nazi Germany it took the form of reviving Norse gods,symbols and using pagan rituals to invoke power and fortune for the Aryan conquerors. As the constant flux of 20th century life began to set in,a large chunk of the world affected by such mass upheavel and endless change reverted to nationalistic fervor,religious fundamentalism and hopes for utopia based, oddly enough,on modern science and technology-the very means by which the modern chaos enveloped the world. Islamic fundamentalism is little more than a childish,confused,frightened,angry response to a world that doesn't any longer make sense to those who hold a medieval worldview.It has nothing positive,intelligent,useful or constructive in its ideology.It is bankrupt and doomed to bring more of the same misery,envy,hatred,poverty and warfare. This is a book everyone ought read to remind the West and any civilized people in the world what it is we are up against.