Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 424 pages
- Published by: Prometheus Books July 2002
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1591020107
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1591020103
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Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
- Weighs: 1.6 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
This sweep of the history of Islamic extremism suffers from a lack of focus and a failure to confront complex questions. Murphy, a military historian, covers a lot of ground, beginning his story with the birth of the prophet Muhammad in A.D. 571 and ending with the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. But most of the book looks at the 20th century's sporadic outbreaks of anti-West violence. All too often this account feels like a list of atrocities, without interpretation and context. In just a few pages, for example, Murphy jumps from the rise of Nasser in Egypt to the creation of the Turkish state to the rule of the Shah in Iran. He doesn't delve in any depth into the conditions, whether internal or external, that led to today's Islamic militancy. In his epilogue, Murphy further fails to explore the quandary of where the U.S. campaign should go next, yet repeatedly cheers it on making his book feel like a patriotic high school history textbook.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Review
"a strong blend of history and social analysis" --
The Bookwatch, December 2002"An in-depth look at global Islamic terrorism" --
Indianapolis Star"If it were up to me, it would be mandatory reading in every newsroom in America." --
Bookviews.com June 2002"There are many books in print about Islam. If I were to buy just three, [this] would be the first." --
Robert K. Dorman,"To say that this history of Islamic terrorism is timely would be something of an understatement mandatory reading." --
Dallas Morning News"a comprehensively sweeping and revealing account of the historical origins and current threats posed by global Islamic terrorism." --
Washington Times, December 29, 2002"serious academic contribution to the revealing of the intricate and leapfrogging process of the transformation of Islam into Islamism." --
-e-Extreme, Spring 2003
Reader Reviews This book has plenty about the crimes of Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who conducted a somewhat inefficient mass murder campaign against Jewish farmers in the region, urged Hitler to expand his Final Solution to the Middle Eastern Jews, helped engineer the entry of Iraq into WWII on the side of the Axis, and when he had to flee Baghdad, spent most of the rest of the war in German occupied territory. He was never prosecuted for war crimes (no doubt due in part to the obsequious behavior that went on in European countries eager to regain their colonial empires, including the interment of Jews in British prison camps on Cyprus), and wound up living in Egypt where he was active in his and many other Arabs' lifelong campaign to exterminate the Jews. His and others' similar efforts no doubt contributed to the foundation of modern Israel. Overall, this book traces the history of Islamicism, the political practice (which began with Mohammed by the way) of killing every non-Moslem in sight and trying to set up a totalitarian state run by a religious hierarchy. Recommended reading: -:- The Quest for the Red Prince by by Michael Bar-Zohar (1585747394)
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