In the Washington Post, Pamela Constable says Benazir Bhutto’s book, Islam, Democracy and the West is ‘uncharacteristically blunt’, calling for the rescue of Islam from fanatics, bigots and the forces of dictatorship
Harper. 328 pp. $27.95
There are some things only the dead can get away with saying, and some deaths speak more powerfully than anything the living can write. This book, finished just before its author was assassinated in Pakistan in December, sends out an urgent warning to her fellow Muslims and to Western democratic powers — a warning one hopes may now find greater resonance with both audiences.
Benazir Bhutto, the elegant former Pakistani prime minister, hoped to return democratic rule to her native country and knew she stood a good chance of being killed in the process. She was rushing to complete “Reconciliation” when she was slain at a political rally, her death transforming this manifesto into a cry from the grave to save her faith, her homeland and East-West relations from looming catastrophe.
April 5, 2008 at 3:20 |
[...] Benazir’s words of warning [...]