India and Israel against Islamic Terror by B.N Sharma (2003, Book)

I read this book with the hope that this is a comparative study of Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, followed by an examination of the two cultures stressing the similarities of two civilizations, and finally describing the impact of Islamic terrorism in the history of these two nations. If you read this book with this thought, I bet you would be disappointed. The book lacks focus; the narratives are too diffused. The reader expects the author to start with a brief history of Indian religions and culture since the author is born and grew up in India, but he chooses to start the book with the history of Jewish culture. Chapter 2-15 rambles, and reads like an essay written by a high school student on Jewish history. Sentences using simple words instead bombastic language would have attracted more readers. In many instances the reader would be confused since book focuses on Christian and Jewish conflicts (for example, see pages 62-63, 84, 98-99, 115, 120, 130, 136-138, 160 and 163).
A very brief discussion on Israel’s three wars with Egypt including the 1973 Yom Kippur war known for its military prowess and superiority of Israeli military logistics could have been compared with the three wars of India with Pakistan (pages 109, and 170-173, 175-179, 286). This could have emerged as an interesting chapter by itself. The second part; chapters 16 – 19 describes the history and culture of India. Brief references to the common features of Hinduism and Judaism are found in few paragraphs but fails to expand this into useful discussion (see page 81-82. 194-195, 208-209, 305). The author clearly wants to focus on the destruction brought about by Islamists on India and Israel, but key historical points have not been used in an advantageous way. Sometimes the author shifts focus from paragraph to paragraph. Buddhism was completely decimated by Islamic invaders of India, and Sikhism suffered significantly during 18 and 19 century India, but vague references if ever have been made about these two faiths. In light of these observations, the statement about Mohammed is confounding (see page 305); no expert of Islamic terrorism has found anything positive about the teachings of this Prophet. Chapter 19 -21 are perhaps well written sections of the book that summarizes the impact of growing autocracy of Islamic population around the globe. The comparative analysis of India and Israel are fairly presented in chapter 20 and 21. . The leftists, liberals, apologists, surrender-prone activists, and losers are legitimizing Islamic terrorism not only in India and Israel but also in Western Europe and North America. The author has made a reasonable presentation of this problem in India, but ignored similar problems that exist in Israel (see pages 214, 278, 294-295, 329). One last note is that the author could have compared the economic and cultural infrastructure of Pakistan with India for arms race; he would have come to a quick conclusion that Pakistan will not sustain the arms race with India; just like former Soviet Union collapsed in the arms race with United States.

In spite of many instances of deficiencies found in this book, this is still the only work that addresses this rather important aspect of Islamic terrorism. One last note; the front cover picture is a misrepresentation; the Indian and Israeli flags should have been NE and NW of Islamic flag respectively.