الهويات القاتلة

If I could give this book less than 1 stars, I would.

Before we get into the politics, let us break down the structure of the book itself. The book is presented as an essay while failing to meet the basic requirements of an essay. Bold statements were presented without evidence or examples and no counterargument was provided to act as further justification for his statements, and while not even acknowledging the opposing faction, which makes the work prejudiced by default. The work sounds more like a series of tweets, composed with the purpose of baiting the reader, and then eventually at the end of each chapter, doubling down quickly and ending the chapters abruptly. This work doesn't even meet the requirement of a high school class.
What is more laughable is the many instances, and this comes back to how the book felt like a series of tweets, of him abruptly saying “I have done my research thoroughly on this topic so I know...” then providing none of that research or acknowledging that a topic is more nuanced than he is writing it out to be, but simultaneously saying that is why he needs to be a reductionist. Sir... it is your own book, you can write whatever you want, however long you want it to be. And even if you didn't have the space... so many useless things could have easily been struck out in favor of making a solid point.
I was thoroughly disappointed in a man I wholeheartedly respected and whose works I grew up with. I come as a generation that read Baldassar's Odyssey, Leo Africanus, the Rock of Tanios, Samarcande, etc.. when I was only 14-15, passed down to me from my parents who thoroughly respect him, too. To be astounded, not only with the poorly disguised bigotry, but by his inability to present a respectable work of writing albeit lacking in political awareness... that is unforgivable solely from a literary point of view.

Let us talk about the liberalism and the flagrant islamophobia and disdain of the global south, paired with lazy doubling down at the end of each chapter.
In the face of the current political climate, and him Amin Maalouf being someone who lived through the civil war, reducing the problems of the middle east as problems of underdeveloped sense of identity and self actualization vis à vis religion and then it inevitably trickling down into religious fanaticism... offensive would be a compliment here. A man who saw the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, to reduce that into a conflict of Muslim vs. Jewish is downright treason.
Not to mention justifying European colonialism and simultaneously criticizing any rise against said colonialism because “no more blood need to be spilled”, downright saying the global south is jealous of the west for what it could accomplish, accusing the African American population of not properly wanting to assimilate into American culture, etc...
Really, the whole book was a series of horrible takes, meant to kiss up to Europeans, imperialism and globalism while reducing the actual issues of the global south either to jealousy, inability to be self aware, or religious fanaticism.

It was also extremely inconsistent. It was sometimes very hard to keep up with an idea he is making, and it wasn't just me, my mom as well, and several other people I saw who reviewed this book.
And the good takes? 80% of them I had when I was 15, sir, you are not that special.