Review of Louis D. Hayes, The Islamic State in the Post-Modern World: the Political Experience of Pakistan.

Abstract

Pakistan is widely acknowledged as a nation of strategic geopolitical importance, in that the success of NATO and US endeavours in Afghanistan, directed against the Taliban, are seen to depend on permanence and good governance in Pakistan. Louis D. Hayes’s book is an attempt to contribute to the ongoing debate on Pakistan’s standing as a nation-state in today’s global world. The author attempts to provide a succinct view of political developments in Pakistan since its creation in 1947 and the tensions between the promise of a modern nation-state and the menace of potentially Islamist Pakistan. From the Pakistan Movement to Mr. Sharif’s current government, this book breaks no new ground, nor does it offer fresh insights into Pakistan’s current political realities. The dearth of ethnography and first-hand experience makes the book a mere description of political events. The book’s overall organization is more of a collection of separate essays rather than a coherent narrative. Hayes’s disjointed approach and nebulous arguments make it difficult for the reader to follow the author’s narratives. The book goes surprisingly wrong in quoting basic historical facts, such as giving an incorrect date for the founding of Pakistan (see pp.128, 145). The book also betrays a lack of familiarity with basic knowledge of Islamic history. While discussing the Rashidun Caliphate, for example, the author writes that two rightly guided successors Umr and Ali were assassinated (p.37), and discounts the murder of Usman, the third caliph. The frequent replication of the same paragraphs and sentences in different chapters further increases the likelihood that readers will not take the book in a considered manner. The book is divided into three parts. The first discusses the concept of state and basic elements required to run a state. Hayes traces the starting point of the modern state back Cont Islam (2016) 10:289–291 DOI 10.1007/s11562-015-0349-8