Reviewed by Michael O’Connor

Paul Gray is a columnist with Melbourne’s tabloid daily, the Herald Sun. Nightmare of the Prophet is published by Freedom Publishing, the National Civic Council’s publishing house.

This small book of 181 pages—about 60,000 words—is divided into five segments that attempt to describe terrorism, its impact on the world and the steps that should be taken to deal with the phenomenon. Its style is very journalistic—short sentences, brief paragraphs and assertive rather than argued. It is a difficult book to read, not only because of the style more suited to an accident report but also because the structure is incoherent and repetitious.

Gray’s basic thesis is ‘that terrorism represents a threat to the existence of Western civilization. It does not simply represent a threat of mass murder. It does not only represent the danger from explosions in public places. Behind it, and within it, lies an important degree of human intelligence. This human intelligence seeks, in a thoughtful, calm and deliberate way, to destroy the hard-won heritage of the world’s great civilizations and establish in its place a utopian fantasy’ (p173-4).

Gray’s is a doomsday scenario but it is based upon a serious misunderstanding of the nature and scale of the problem. Thus, the author simplistically equates what he refers to as the ideology of radical Islam with the ideology of terrorism. But terrorism is not an ideology; it is a tactic or a weapon if you like. Radical Islam is certainly a dangerous ideology. Whether it is as dangerous as was Leninist Communism, as the author insists, is much more doubtful.

Gray believes that the world, especially the Western world, lives in constant fear of suicide bombers but this is patent nonsense. Even in Israel or contemporary Iraq, the vast majority go about their daily business with little or no concern. They may be alert but generally not alarmed. Most communities, including those of the West, are extraordinarily resilient and are even strengthened by terrorist attacks. In their daily lives, if they think about terrorism at all, they play the odds that are heavily weighted against them becoming victims.

The modern media’s preoccupation with headline events tends to blind practitioners to the reality of life. After all, Australia loses more citizens to violent death and injury on the roads during a holiday season than in the Bali bombing of 2002.

Gray is deeply concerned about the potential for radical Islamism to take hold in Indonesia as a result of the growth of those religious schools or madrassas that preach radical Islam. These are certainly of concern to the Indonesian authorities but Gray is pessimistic about Indonesia’s capacity to resist their impact upon the community. That pessimism derives from a very superficial understanding of Indonesia. In particular, Gray insists on seeing the Indonesian armed forces as ideologically unified when, in fact, they are anything but. All the evidence suggests that Indonesia is a society in transition with many healthy developments that will stand in the way of radical Islamic movements such as Jemaah Islamiya.

Gray is on stronger ground when he sets out his four-point strategy for dealing with radical Islam. This strategy—less his own than that of Professor Yehuda Bauer—calls for: ‘propaganda in favour of moderate Islam; economic support to Muslims in Muslim countries to help them build a middle class; stronger political alliances between the West and those Muslim governments which demonstrate awareness of the nature of the totalitarian threat; and the appropriate use of force’ (p176).

This is, of course, a broad but generally rational strategy, much of which is already being implemented as far as is possible. The principal failure of this book is that it does not examine in any detail how each of these elements could or should be implemented, especially absent some degree of counter-productive coercion on the part of the West.

Indeed, it might well be asked why the West should even take the lead when, as the author admits almost in passing, moderate Islam is itself the primary target of the radicals.

Gray is dismissive of the tendency in the West to concentrate on security measures against terrorism. He particularly condemns the term ‘war on terrorism’. He has a point in that the term is open to misinterpretation, especially when military forces are involved. But the use of the term, primarily designed for the media’s insistence on sound bites, is little different from those other ‘wars’ on poverty, drugs, organized crime, the road toll and so on.

Given the nature and style of the book, it is hard to know for whom it is intended. It is too superficial to be of value to policymakers or even thoughtful lay people. It may be attractive to junior high school students. But I doubt it.

Paul Gray, ‘Nightmare of the Prophet’, Freedom Publishing Australia, Melbourne, 2004, paperback, 181 pp