A Review of Dr. Khalid Sohail's New Book

Prophets of Violence—Prophets of Peace 

A few months ago, Dr. Khalid Sohail sent me his article on Nelson Mandela to translate for his up-coming book, Prophets of Violence—Prophets of Peace. While reading the article, I developed an impression of a book comprising articles on revolutionary personalities of the last century. I recently started reading the book with the same expectations; however, by the time I finished it, my opinion had changed.   

Not only do the individual articles carry their unique and independent identity, but when strung together, they create a broad spectrum of political struggles. I would say I found this book to be a bird's eye view or a research work on the world's political situations of the 20th century. The book presents a very sound perspective and psychological analysis of how colonization and decolonization impacted the people of the last century. 

• Most of the Prophets, directly or indirectly, were fighting against white Supremacists.
• Even though the USSR was a superpower of the 20th century, none of these Prophets was fighting specifically against the government of the USSR.
• While goals, enemies and locations were entirely different, most of the Prophets were using more or less same tactics and strategies.
• While Che Guevara was fighting against American imperialism and waiting for the USSR to intervene and help, the USSR never came. Similarly, when the Dalai Lama was fighting against the Chinese communist government and tried to get American help, the Americans never came. Political initiatives are more motivated by self-interest than by people or principles.

I like the way Khalid Sohail

·        Takes a subtle and balanced position in describing the personalities as Prophets of Violence or Prophets of Peace.

·        On one hand shows Mohandas Gandhi as an iconic symbol of a Prophet of Peace while on the other hand describing his personality conflicts.

·        Emphasizes more the situations than the personalities.

·        Describes the personality clashes of Jinah and Gandhi and how they became one of the reasons for the partition of India.

·        Shows the connection between the 20th century's violent experiences and the 21st century's major issues of American imperialism and terrorism.

·        Compares and proves how holy wars are the worst kind of wars and highlights that there is no difference between a Crusade and a Jihad.

and

·        Maintains a high standard of analysis throughout the book.

   Zahra Naqvi

October 23rd 2005