For four years, Jessica Stern interviewed extremist members of three
religions around the world: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Traveling
extensively--to refugee camps in Lebanon, to religious schools in
Pakistan, to prisons in Amman, Asqelon, and Pensacola--she discovered
that the Islamic jihadi in the mountains of Pakistan and the Christian
fundamentalist bomber in Oklahoma have much in common.
Based on her vast research, Stern lucidly explains how terrorist
organizations are formed by opportunistic leaders who--using religion as
both motivation and justification--recruit the disenfranchised. She
depicts how moral fervor is transformed into sophisticated organizations
that strive for money, power, and attention.
Jessica Stern's extensive interaction with the faces behind the terror
provide unprecedented insight into acts of inexplicable horror, and
enable her to suggest how terrorism can most effectively be countered.
A crucial book on terrorism, Terror in the Name of God is a brilliant
and thought-provoking work.