All three monotheistic faiths have a tendency towards militant fundamentalism, fuelled by a sense that violence will in some way cleanse the world and bring about a fresh start for their believers.
The 2000s were a terrible decade in which violent radicals from Islam, Christianity and Judaism excelled in the savagery of their actions and had a huge impact on the politics of the rest of the world.
Therefore, it is important to take the time to examine where this kind of thinking came from, so as to better combat this tendency towards terrible violence.
Talmiz Ahmad is a noted Indian diplomat who has spent much of his time in the Arab world, including two postings as Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia and one to the UAE.
His book, Children of Abraham at War — The Clash of Messianic Militarisms, is an examination of how all three Abrahamic religions share a "strain of violence which includes aspects that would suggest a divine mandate for destruction".
In facing up to this issue, Ahmad quotes religious scholar Karen Armstrong (who came to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai earlier this year), who said "fundamentalisms are embattled forms of spirituality. … Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil."
In his book, Ahmad's contribution to thinking on fundamentalism is to define three concepts which are shared by all three Semitic religions: Apocalypticism, Millennialism and Messianism.
Apocalypticism means the belief in the "imminent total transformation for this world through divine intervention. Millennialism refers to the expectation of a radical break at the end of each thousand-year period. And Messianism is the expectation of a divinely ordained saviour who will lead believers against evil and herald the millennial era.
Most of the book is a fascinating examination of how these three concepts have led all three religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) on to the path of violence and extremist thinking.
Well-grounded arguments
Ahmad's understanding of the Middle East and awareness of the wider Muslim world was outraged by the demonisation of Islam after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.
He takes issue with those who argue that the West and Islam face an inevitable clash and attacks such thinking from Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntingdon as a "broad-brush approach denied all political context of legitimacy to Muslim grievances", which also "fails to address Western culpability through betrayals and interventions".
As a working diplomat, Ahmad is aware of the political impact of these powerful fundamentalisms. His retelling of the story of the 2000s is backed by events and ideas from the international arena. He refers to the resurgent Christian right and Neocon America, the Israeli colonist movement and the forceful Netanyahu government in Israel, Al Qaida and its global jihad, and George W. Bush's global war on terror, with its far-reaching consequences on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and its radicalisation of the politics of the whole Muslim world.
Ahmad is an optimist, as any rational liberal has to be, since anyone who gives in to despair over these issues leaves the floor open to the extremists and violent radicals to set the agenda.
Ahmad spends much of his book making the case that "the stage is now set for the rejection of Messianic dreams and demonisations which have led to such wanton hatred and destruction among the children of Abraham, and the emergence of a new era of dialogue, understanding and respect between the three brothers".
The Children of Abraham at War is a scholarly work, with a great amount of detailed references and substantiating material. But just when the depth of academia threatens to overwhelm the reader, the book's logical organisation takes over and guides the reader calmly through to the end. The topics and chapters are also well signposted throughout the book and each chapter is summarised at its end, so the reader has the great benefit of knowing what the author himself thought was important in the chapter.
All this helps the reader join with the author in self-consciously putting together the building blocks of his thesis.
As the Arab Spring has swept over the Arab world, there is a new sense of optimism that young and secular Arabs might take their fate back into their own hands. The majority of these young people are Muslim — and they are no less Muslim than the radicals who have been setting their region's political agenda for a generation.
Just because their politics are secular does not reduce their religion. This is the message Ahmad was writing about when he wrote this book, and the political events in the Arab world have given it a new and very immediate relevance.
Children of Abraham at War, The Clash of Messianic Militarisms, was published in 2010 and reprinted in 2011.
Children of Abraham at War — The Clash of Messianic Militarisms
By Talmiz Ahmad,
Aakar Books,
475 pages, $xxxx