The End of Two Illusions: Islam After the West by Hamid Dabashi

Abstract

Reviewed by: The End of Two Illusions: Islam After the West by Hamid Dabashi Joseph Evans (bio) The End of Two Illusions: Islam After the West by Hamid Dabashi. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2022, 333 pp. Hamid Dabashi's The End of Two Illusions is an insightful socio-political analysis. Dabashi argues that the strictly defined theoretical opposition between "Islam and the West" is a recent, but false, historical construct that is both obsolete and dangerous. This text demonstrates that the prevalence of supposed contradictions between "Islam" and "the West" is a pretense that disguises an exaggerated geopolitics of power. Dabashi, a professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, makes a compelling argument. He suggests that the "de-formative and dangerous binary" is a repercussion of the encounters between fading Muslim empires and growing global domination by European empires in the seventeenth century that is now utilized for contemporary political purposes (28). Dabashi proposes that the opposition in this false binary is an illusion supported by "the West" thinking that "it is exclusively bestowed with the gift of civilization" (29). The text successfully offers an alternative perspective for reconsidering the popular and influential arguments that place "Islam" in opposition to "the West." The End of Two Illusions begins with a perspective on Islam before its encounter with European colonialism, then a historical archeology of "the West," which allows for a deconstruction of the illusory opposition between them. It broadens the narrow scope of focusing only on military encounters by including cultural and intellectual engagements. After a lengthy introduction, Dabashi presents his argument in three interrelated parts: he accounts for the dissimilar categories of the binary, then he shows how the two parts of this relationship are erroneous, and finally he furnishes the reader with factual evidence to effectively understand the geopolitical reality. The author asks how a religion of one and a half billion people spread over five continents and developed over fourteen hundred years can be set at odds with an "imaginative geography, only recently invented, called 'the West'?" (38) This vital question drives the book's argument and should promote serious reconsideration of the contemporary world. Dabashi's approach is effective because he is equally critical of all sides and perspectives. He recognizes the complexities of global politics and cultural engagement. This text is not simply an attack on the West or an apologetic for Islam but an argument that these are two different entities that should not be oversimplified or even compared. The carefully crafted argument makes [End Page 90] it clear that the lines are blurred, and that this inappropriate binary is a cause, rather than a symptom, of the problem. The text contends that Islam and the West "are not two different phenomena, but coterminous, both the outcome of an identical colonial condition and in need of a simultaneous post-colonial critique" (18). Dabashi places the current state of Islamism in a larger frame of reference, in the global context of its categorical opposition posited against "the West." He concludes by arguing that the historical uses and abuses of that binary opposition are no longer useful or legitimate despite having been politically productive in the past. An important component of Dabashi's approach is the attention he gives to the formation of a transnational public sphere where "Islam and the West" is no longer a credible presupposition. The last three chapters of the book develop this approach by concentrating on the intersectionality of the crucial issues of race, class, and gender. A critical contribution of this text, which is handled skillfully by the author, is his treatment of the concept and practice of dialogue. Dabashi addresses the complexities of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, identifying some of the dangers in common approaches, while offering useful recommendations. He notes in chapter five that a "dialogue of civilizations" was lost after 9/11 because of the wide acceptance of Huntington's thesis of a clash of civilizations, resulting in a monologue rather than a dialogue (174). This model, which Dabashi refers to as "impossible dialogue," became a means of domination, which is a common pitfall of dialogue when utilized to impose one's...