In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong

A very beautiful, timely and lucid reading on a complex idea. Amin Maalouf has the mastery of writing in easy words on tough ideas. Identity shapes every man and woman, and how he/she develops his/her identity is traced in this book. How this identity then dictates his/her future dealings and treatments and his/her position in a given society is also subject of this book. History also plays a very important role in shaping one's identity. In this world and time of constant clashes of ideas and societies and may be 'civilizations' knowing one's identity is very important. Even if one does not classify oneself to a particular identity, his skin/color/language/accent/nationality/religion puts him into a slot most undesireable to him. This compartmentalization of men according to his identity is a reality now. Thats why its important to deconstruct the concept of identity. Maalouf has excellently dealt with this abstract construct.

When I first moved to study in Canada I was fascinated by its diversity and multiculturalism. Being a culture enthusiast, I loved asking people about their identity and experience living in Canada. One common question I used to ask was: "Do you feel more Canadian or Indian/Arab/Latino/Russian/or whatever their ethnicity was)?" The length and depth of their answers would vary. But they all had one thing in common and that was some sort of an identity dilemma. I rarely got any definite answers, I heard a lot of "umm's" and it seemed to me that many people either did not know the answer or were unable to articulate it. Or, as I found out from reading the book, my question was possibly fundamentally flawed. Amin Maalouf begins his book by expressing his concern over the political correctness or rather incorrectness of the question that I have been asking many people. He says: "How many times, since I left Lebanon in 1967 to live in France, have people asked me, with the best intentions in the world, whether I felt "more French" or "more Lebanese." Questions like that bothered him because they require a choice to be made while he firmly believes that identity CANNOT be compartmentalized. "You can't divide it up into halves or thirds or any other separate segments. I haven't got several identities: I've got just one, made up of many components in a mixture that is unique just to me, just as other people's identity is unique to them as individuals." Amin Maalouf is Arab, French, Lebanese, Catholic, and a mixture of other "components" and he rejects to slice and dice himself up into multiple identities or to be put in situations that would require him to choose an either/or. Why do people always feel obliged to project one component of their identity over the other(s)? Why do they have difficulty acknowledging all the different factors that make up their identity? Why do many people commit crimes in the name of religious, ethnic, national or some other kind of identity? What is IDENTITY and how did the NEED TO BELONG to an identity shape our world? The author attempts to answer those questions throughout the book and he does an excellent job in doing so. His message is clear: people have to stop self-hating and start to fully accept their diversity because those who do are like mortar strengthening the societies in which the live and those who don't, end up being, many of the times, individuals who are prepared to kill for the sake of identity.

When you admit that Human Nature is the same among all peoples and that people tend to be violent when resources are scarce, and freedom lovers when resources are abundant, then you will appreciate the powerful words of Amin Maalouf.

Amin Maalouf begins this series of essays tautologically. At first, Maalouf is telling me that I am special and so is everyone else. I almost put away "The Nature of Identity." His theme, then, took on complexity and subtlety. So do wade through the preliminaries, you will be repaid for your patience.Of course, we are all singular. Of course, we all have shifting identities, depending on our context; answering the question, "Who needs an education about what I represent today?"We are introduced to the fact that Mr. Maalouf is a Lebanese Christian who speaks Arabic, and now lives in France. Then Mr. Maalouf begins bringing things home. In this age we are very concerned about the nature of Islam, and how we should regard its prospects in the world. Maalouf establishes that Islam is not, by nature, a religion for radicals. Islam tolerated alternative views of the world in a way unknown to medieval and renaissance Christianity (which butchered its dissidents). Islam was the midwife of modernism for chrissakes. Through Islam we of Western European Christian descent received the cannon of greek philosophy, the foundation of our philosophical world view.What then is the force radicalizing Islam, Maalouf asks. What is the force leading to radicalization in almost every other form of identity, environmentalism, Christianity, Maalouf asks. Globalization, he answers.Consistently Maalouf reminds us that people are changed by and change their religion, their identity, their allegiances. We are constantly interacting with our social context. Radicalism is on the rise because all groups, from Timothy McVeigh to Osama bin Laden, feel overwhelmed by the rising tide of what appears an unstoppable globalization. We all, in some sense, feel helpless before this tide. Maalouf views this sense of threat as legitimate. Yet, Maalouf argues, it need not be so. We are in charge of our destiny, we are so much more alike than we are different in this world today. We can all be represented in this globalization tide, although the path is unfamiliar and unsure.This is a collection of essays in which the tensions and solutions rise together to a very satisfying crescendo. There is no pedantry, nor a trace of condescension in this short powerful book. To my mind, we have received in this volume a very workable program for diffusing the radicalism that so besets our world. At the same time, we receive a program for more comfortably realizing each one of us is a plural and singular entity. This book finds its origin in anger against those who demand that each person must assert ONE identity, ONE allegiance. Maalouf skillfully establishes that we are plural in identity and allegiance. And if this is realized by most, we have the prospect of a future more of peace than war.

Its a great book to read like all Amin Maalouf's books, and very well organised. The Author clarify a lot of ethnic as well as political problems and you'll never get bored while reading it. The arab world should be very proud of Maalouf, he has indeed showed the world in his books the essence of the Arabic culture.