A Journalist-Philosopher Unafraid to Look at the Angles of Truth

Who Killed Daniel Pearl? by Bernard-Henri Lévy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Indeed, who did kill and cut up into ten pieces Daniel Pearl, the Jewish-American journalist on assignment in Pakistan in 2002, this book asks. And, more deeply, why? Who were the fundamentalists behind this foul and appalling deed? Levy creates an intriguing insight, especially into the murky, brutal, Islamist world of Pakistan, and indeed into some western Muslims who enthusiastically get caught up in this darkness.

Unfortunately, sympathy for these fanatics comes all too often from the world's New Left who, like the fundamentalists they end up aligning themselves with, hold this exact view: 'We don't care what America does or doesn't think, because the crime isn't thought, the crime is America.' -- And one might add, 'being a Jew!' Yes, Pearl was murdered for this.

'Can't we hear behind this... the voice of another infamy?' Levy asks, and rightfully points to the (left wing and fundamentalist) neo-fascism of our times.

Finally, and sinisterly, as Levy concludes: 'Daniel Pearl is dead, victim of neo-anti-Judaism that is blossoming before our eyes.' The world was warned more than two and half decades ago of this precise re-occurrence; this books marks another, scary, contemporary warning.




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Who Killed Daniel Pearl?