Shattered Images The Rise of Militant Iconoclasm in Syria

Fred A. Reed's fifth book on the Middle East and "the wars of the Ottoman succession, "traces the roots of Islamic fundamentalism, as currently enacted by Hezbollah and other Islamic fundamentalist organizations, to the iconoclasts of sixth and seventh century Damascus.AKThe emergence of Iconoclasm, as sudden and overwhelming as it was catalytic, was at once the product of the forces released by the new social, political and religious teachings of the Prophet, and of their encounter with the Christian world at its far periphery.AKThey are forces that are quite alive and at large in todayís world, as the Western crusade against this latest prophetic dispensation of the Abrahamic tradition assumes a form both aggressive and invasive.AKShattered Images covers all of the major Islamic faiths in its search for the origins of contemporary fundamentalist movements: the Shi'a, Sunni, Ismaili (and their connection with the Assassins), and many of the minor tributaries of Islam, including the "secular "(and related) Syrian Ba'as and Iraqi Bath parties.AKAs American tank turrets turn from Iraq and take threatening aim at Syria, current events increasingly confirm Reed as the mid-east specialist that American military intelligence has known him to be since the publication of his first book, Persian Postcards in 1994.AKAKFred A. Reedís Anatolia Junction: A Journey into Hidden Turkey (recently translated into Turkish); Persian Postcards: Iran After Khomeini; Salonica Terminus: Travels into the Balkan Nightmare; and Takeover in Tehran: the Inside Story of the 1979 US Embassy Capture; are also available from Talonbooks.Reed, Fred A. is the author of 'Shattered Images The Rise of Militant Iconoclasm in Syria' with ISBN 9780889224858 and ISBN 0889224854.