CHASING A MIRAGE by Tarek Fatah

Chasing a mirage by Tarek Fatah The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

"Morality is doing what is right, regardless what we are told;

Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right."

A cri de couer... succinctly yet with power

Cabbagetown' s Tarek Fatah begins his cri de coeur by setting out his citizen of the world credentials succinctly yet with power: "I am an Indian born in Pakistan; a Punjabi born in Islam; an immigrant in Canada with a Muslim consciousness, grounded in a Marxist youth. I am one of Salman Rushdie's many Midnight's Children: we were snatched from the cradle of a great civilization and made permanent refugees, sent in search of an oasis that turned out to be a mirage. I am in pain, a living witness to how dreams of hope and enlightenment can be turned into a nightmare of despair and failure ... I write as a Muslim whose ancestors were Hindu. My religion, Islam is rooted in Judaism, while my Punjabi culture is tied to that of the Sikhs. Yet I am told by Islamists that without shedding this multifaceted heritage, if not outrightly rejecting it, I cannot be a true Muslim."

And so it goes in Fatah's Chasing a Mirage:The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State (Wiley, 410 pages, $31.95). The co-founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and the host of Vision TV's weekly The Muslim Chronicle sums up his inclusive, holistic understanding of the Quran's teachings, in opposition to the Islamic fundamentalism, of political and religious, that he has spent most of his adult life campaigning against it. Chasing a Mirage is dedicated to Benazir Bhutto and Daniel Pearl: "a Muslim and a Jew, victims of terrorism."

- Dan Smith

To read Toronto Star's review of Tarek Fatah's book, click here.

"Chasing a Mirage"

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Advance praise for Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State

		"Tarek Fatah is never afraid to speak his mind, and he refuses to shrink quietly into the night. The questions he is posing are critical." - Bob Rae Foreign Affairs Critic, Liberal Party of Canada.

				"The book is a valuable contribution to the on-going debate within the Muslim community about how it reconciles with modernity." - Senator Mobina Jaffer Parliament of Canada, Ottawa.

		"This work of courage and daring needs to be read widely." - PERVEZ HOODBHOY Professor, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

				"...a must read for anyone who cares about these issues." - JANICE GROSS STEIN Director, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

		"Tarek Fatah rightly explains that the decline of the world’s Muslims does not come from the absence of a puritanical Islamic state." - HUSAIN HAQQANI Professor, Boston University/Co-Chair - Islam & Democracy Project at Hudson Institute, D.C.

				"Fatah writes with a startling knowledge of and empathy for his religion and its adherents." - MICHAEL COREN Columnist, Toronto SUN.

		"This fascinating work by brave and brilliant Tarek Fatah is simultaneously thought-provoking, instructive and enlightening for laymen and scholars, Muslim and non-Muslim." - TAJ HASHMI Professor, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu.

				"the author reminds us that the canonisation of Islamist political thinking... can only be described in present-day terms as Fascist and intolerant." - FARISH A. NOOR Professor, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin.

		"Tarek Fatah shows through painstaking, meticulous research that the sooner Muslims rid themselves of the deadweight of centuries of tribal feuds in the name of true Islam the greater will be their chances of getting out of the rut of obscurantism and fanaticism." - Ishtiaq Ahmed Professor of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden.

				"Chasing a Mirage is an extremely valuable contribution to the fight by progressive Muslims against Islamist fascism." - Farooq Tariq Secretary General, Pakistan Labour Party.

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