Benazir Bhutto
______________
Reconciliation
Islam, Democracy, and the West
This is a very good book for people who wants to learn more
about religion n the current situation of terrorism with respect to
Islam.
Chapters
1 The Path Back
2 The Battle Within Islam: Democracy Versus
Dictatorship, Moderation Versus Extremism
3 Islam And Democracy: History And Practice
4 The Case Of Pakistan
5 Is The Clash Of Civilizations Inevitable?
6 Reconciliation
The whole of the book is not an autobiography (like many other
books on Benazir). The contents of the book was a collaboration
with the author Mark Siegel who helped took down notes for
her and can be considered completed before Benazir was
assasinated. It seems to me that Benazir deep down in her guts knew
that she will be assassinated,
therefore hastened to complete the whole book. I read with
sadness throughout, because while reading I can feel Benazir as a
very strong woman who sacrificed herself in the modern
male-dominated Islamic society.
The current situation in Pakistan is a mess (eg. the beautiful
SWAT valley in now totally under the Pakhtun's and Taliban's
control already). You can follow-up more about the current
situation of Pakistan in the internet after reading Benazir's
Reconciliation.
I bought this book about 3 months ago from popular. Has soft
cover (black cover - smaller) and hard cover (brown cover - bigger)
versions. Hard cover price roughly $42++, soft cover $24.45. Soft
cover & hard cover from different publishers, but content of
the 2 books is exactly the same, down to
every wording, spacing, and pagination. This book can be found also
at Harris, Times, and maybe other places.
I strong recommend anyone with interest to current world
situation to read this book, but no doubt be open to contradicting
views out there, as there are many anti-Benazir propaganda in the
media too. Also, when reading the portion regarding the
independence fight of the Awami League for Bangladesh, take note of
Benazir's tone (i feel that she preferred to tone this portion
down).
The book cannot be found in any national libraries as yet.
My Readability Rating (for
people interested in this area of topic): 
/ out
of 5
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Some praises for the book
"This is one of the most gripping and important books of our
era. It's a powerful personal narrative of an astonishingly brave
woman. It's also a brilliant manisfesto for challenging radical
Islam. Benazir Bhutto was an intense but charming woman driven by a
crucial mission. Her death makes this beautiful book all the more
poignant, and also more necessary." -Walter Isaacson
"This is a courageous and powerful answer to hatred and
intolerance, written by an extraordinary woman. Reading Benazir
Bhutto's Reconciliation shows just how much we lost with
her death. You'll finish it and mourn for what might have been."
-Arianna Huffington
"Pakistan has become the critical battlefield in the so-called
war on terror. Reconciliation is the story of a courageous
woman and her struggle for democracy and moderation in Islam.
Benazir Bhutto, not the extremists who killed her, represented the
vast majority of Pakistani Muslims, and this book is a reminder of
how much we have lost." -Peter Galbraith
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My most memorable excerpt from the
book:
"About thirty minutes
before I went down to loosen my sandals in the compartment on the
lower deck of the truck, I saw a man holding up a baby. The baby
was dressed in PPP colors and was about one of two years old. The
man gesticulated repeatedly to me to take the baby. I gesticulated
to the crowd to make way for him. But when the crowd parted, the
man would not come forward. Instead he would try to hand the baby
to someone in the crowd. Worried that the baby would fall and be
trampled upon or be lost, I would gesticulate no, you bring the
baby to me. Finally he pointed to the security guard. I asked the
security guard to let him up on the truck. However by the time he
came to the truck, I was going to the compartment. Agha Siraj
Durrani, a PPP parliamentarian, was watching the access to the
truck by the stair. When the man tried to hand the baby up the
truck, Agha Siraj told him to get lost. The man then went to a
policemobile to the left of the truck, which refused to take the
baby. The man moved to the policemobile in front of the first. A
woman councilor of the PPP, Rukhsana Faisal Boloch, was on this
mobile, as was a cameraman. As the man tried to hand the baby to
the second policemobile, the first policemobile made an
announcement: "Don't take the baby, don't take the baby, don't let
the baby up on the truck." Both these policemobiles were exactly
parallel to where I was sitting in the armored truck. We suspect
the baby's clothes were lined with plastic explosives. As the man
scuffled with the police in the van to hand the baby over, the
first explosion took place on the van. Everyone in that van was
killed, as were those around it. Human flesh, blood, and body
pieces flew everywhere. The blood and gore rose up to the truck,
sticking to the clothes, hair, and hands of the people I had been
standing up with earlier...."
(note: PPP stands for Pakistan's
Peoples Party, led by Benazir herself)