Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 26
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass spring 2023
    • interview with Raina J. Leon
    • interview with Sarah Fawn Montgomery
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2023
    • flash glass 2022
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • audio
    • video
  • archive
    • award nominees
    • read and order back issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 26
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass spring 2023
    • interview with Raina J. Leon
    • interview with Sarah Fawn Montgomery
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • through the looking glass
  • editorial content
    • book reviews
    • opinion
    • interviews
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2023
    • flash glass 2022
    • flash glass 2021
    • flash glass 2020
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • audio
    • video
  • archive
    • award nominees
    • read and order back issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • newsletter
Glassworks

Review: It’s Not About Religion

12/11/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Gregory Harms' Explanation for the Unrest in the Middle East
Review: It’s Not About Religion

Antonia DiBona

It’s Not About Religion 
Gregory Harms
Nonfiction
Perceval Press, pp. 106
Cost: $11.00

If asked about the source of the problems in the Middle East, the average American undoubtedly would answer "Islam." At least that is according to Gregory Harms in his new book It’s Not About Religion. He writes, “It has become a virtual reflex to sum up the different conflicts in the region as being a throwback to biblical times.” An independent scholar focusing on US/Middle East relations, Harms sets out to systematically portray what he sites as the true sources of conflict in the Middle East and the role of the West, especially the United States. It’s Not About Religion is the story of a calculating Western government, one that has tried to manipulate the region and in the process caused many of its problems. The volume is laid out in a straightforward manner offering a five-part look at Middle Eastern politics: how Muslims have been presented to Americans historically, Western Europe’s policies in the Middle East, U.S. involvement in the region, the role of religion in the Middle East, and finally the imperialist view that governed America’s actions in the region. 

A major theme throughout the book is a depiction of a meddling United States whose actions created unforeseen consequences. Harms clearly shows specific cases of this phenomenon. For example, in the early 1950s, Iran's prime minister, Muhammad Mossadeq, was interested in nationalizing the then British-owned oil industry. The White House, with close ties to England and oil interests of its own, did not view Mossadeq favorably. A coup was staged in 1953 to overthrow Mossadeq and replace him with a more Western- friendly Shah in a government mission called Operation Ajax. The author of It’s Not About Religion, Gregory Harms’, take on the matter is strikingly similar to the New York Times' bestseller All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, which also noted the unfairness of the situation. Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah’s Men notes, “‘My only crime,’ Mossadeq told his judges, ‘is that I nationalized the Iranian oil industry and removed from this land the network of colonialism and political and economic influence of the greatest empire on earth.’” Harms argues what Stephen Kinzer suggests that “the years following Operation Ajax saw not only a return to the authoritarian oppression long familiar to the Iranian people, but also an upgrade of the Shah’s repressive methods in order to discourage further ‘instability.’” Harms, like Kinzer, questions what Iran would be like today had the United States not interfered. It is a good question and worth contemplating.  
Although the title of the book is It’s Not About Religion, Harms does consider religious groups that have sprung up in the region. He explains how these different religious groups were formed and came into popularity but depicts certain groups like the Muslim Brotherhood very differently from some of his contemporaries. In her memoir, Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a woman raised in Islamic states who claimed asylum in the Netherlands, spoke out against Islamic groups like the Brotherhood and their treatment of women. She champions a secular democratic Middle East and does not support the Muslim Brotherhood. Harms, on the other hand, argues, “Although the Brotherhood had periods of violence, on balance it steered a moderate course.” Obviously his view of religious extremists groups is different that Ali but he explains that religion offers hope for the people in this region and it is hope from “leaders who function either as attendants to American power.” In this way, he again shows how the United States and Western policies have set up an unstable region where religious extremism can flourish. 

As an American, It’s Not About Religion can seem offensive at times. The author is not coming from the popular Western point of view. In the book, Harms considers Robert Fisk, a Middle East news reporter, who described fellow reporters as having “deep insight many of them, into what’s happening in the region, but when I read their reports it’s not there. Everything they have to tell me of interest has been erased.” Gregory Harms argues that this is proof of a biased media. He states, “State power pursues its foreign agenda, which is often carried out with the private sector’s well-being in mind. The private sector owns the media and is not going to imperil its interests.” For a reader who may have been raised with the idea of a free and unbiased press, this feels like an assault against everything he or she believes, but the point Harms raises is an interesting one. It plays into the overall theme of the American government’s manipulation of both foreign and domestic entities. It’s Not About Religion offers an informative look at this underlying problem of the Middle East, taking the discourse away from the tired excuse of religion. It is an enlightening read, well-written, concise and clear. Perhaps a book such as this helps more of us challenge what we think we know about a multifaceted problem. 


Bibliography
Kinzer, S. (2003). All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Picture
Gregory Harms is an independent scholar specializing in American foreign policy and the Middle East. He lectures, keeps a blog on Facebook, and has published articles onCounterPunch, Truthout, and Mondoweiss. Harms has traveled throughout Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, and has been interviewed on BBC Radio.
     His first book, The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction, 3rd ed. (Pluto Press, 2012), as the title suggests, is a brief and general summary of the conflict, written for students and the general reader. The first edition (2005) was selected as a ChoiceOustanding Academic Title.
     Harms's second book, Straight Power Concepts in the Middle East (Pluto Press, 2010), is an examination of US regional policy in the context of US-Israeli relations. And his third title, It's Not about Religion (Perceval Press, 2012), addresses the common question of religion concerning Middle Eastern instability.

Harms can be reached at gharms@gmail.com 
  

Antonia DiBona received her B.S. in Biology from Ursinus College in 2005 and worked as a middle school science teacher in a charter school for underprivileged youth for three years after college. Although teaching was a challenge and very rewarding Antonia has decided to pursue a second passion, writing. She is a first year graduate student at Rowan University pursuing her M.A. in Writing Arts. Her focus is nonfiction and she recently published an article about women in the sciences for the journal HBAdvantage. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    December 2012


    Categories

    All
    2Leaf Press
    7.13 Books
    Able Muse Press
    Abuse
    Agate Publishing
    Agha Shahid Ali Prize
    Alfred A. Knopf
    Alternative Book Press
    A Midsummer Night's Press
    Andrews McMeel Publishing
    Animals
    Apocalypse Party
    Aqueous Books
    Art
    Ashland Creek Press
    Atticus Books
    Autumn House Press
    Bedazzled Ink Publishing
    Bellevue Literary Press
    Belonging
    Black Lawrence Press
    Book Review
    Bottom Dog Press
    Button Poetry
    Cake Train Press
    Catholic
    Chapbook
    Chronic Illness
    Coffee House Press
    Cold War
    Collection
    Coming Of Age
    Copper Canyon Press
    Creeping Lotus Press
    Divertir Publishing
    Drama
    Dystopian
    Dzanc Books
    Editorial
    Essay
    Essays
    Fairy Tales
    Family
    Fat Dog Books
    Father
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Finishing Line Press
    Flash
    Forest Avenue Press
    Furniture Press Books
    Future Tense Books
    Gender
    Geology
    Gospel
    Graywolf Press
    Hadley Rille Books
    Harbor Mountain Press
    Headmistress Press
    Historical Fiction
    Holocaust
    Home
    Howling Bird Press
    Humor
    Hybrid
    Identity
    Illness
    Immigration
    Jaded Ibis Press
    Journalism
    Kernpunkt Press
    Knut House Press
    Language
    Lanternfish Press
    LEFTOVER Books
    Lewis Hine
    LGBTQ
    Literature
    Mad Creek Books
    Meadow-Lark Books
    Memoir
    Mental Health
    #MeToo
    Microcosm Publishing
    Midwest
    Milkweed Editions
    Mixed Media
    Moonflower Books
    Motherhood
    Multi Genre
    Nature
    Nonfiction
    Novel
    Other Press
    Painting
    Perceval Press
    Poetry
    Poetry Prize
    Poetry Review
    Politics
    Press 53
    Prose Poetry
    Race
    Red Bird Chapbooks
    Red Hen Press
    Relationships
    Religion
    Scribner Books
    Sexuality
    Shechem Press
    Short Story
    Son
    Spirituality
    Split Lip Press
    Spoken Word
    Stories
    Suspense
    Symbolism
    Tarpaulin Sky Press
    Tolsun Books
    Torrey House Press
    Tragedy
    Translation
    Travel
    Two Dollar Radio
    University Of Utah Press
    Unnamed Press
    Unsolicited Press
    Violence
    Wings Press
    Winter Goose Publishing
    Women
    World War II
    Yale Younger Poets Prize

    RSS Feed


Picture

glassworks is a publication of
​Rowan University's Master of Arts in Writing
260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu
​All Content on this Site (c) 2023 glassworks