Written for the most part before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, editor David Bukay pulls together thirteen essays on Islam and the threat militant Islam poses on a global level. The three sections divide the essays into 'Islam as World Threat', 'Islam in the World and the Minorities Policy', and 'Islam and Unconventional Warfare'.
The four essays in section one outline the danger of militant Islam and what literal interpretations of the Koran teach. The reader is shown how Muslim worldviews play out in real life, as well as how the media distorts, hides, or simply refuses to report on Islamic activity and ideology. Moreover, the current struggle against the West is characterized as a conflict between civilizations, no longer between ideologies, and much space is given in delineating the major players in the 'Afghan Alumni'.
Section two focuses on re-Islamization and subversion in the name of Islam, including immigration threats and Judeophobia. The six articles in this section cover a lot of ground, literally, as focus shifts from the Middle east to Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, South Asia, the West, and Israel, as we are given examples of how radical Islamist threats in the past could realize themselves in the present or not-to-distant future.
The threat of nuclear, biological and chemical attacks is catalogued in section three, as its three parts give voice to the capabilities, strategies and implications of Islamic and Arab nations. A strategy for the West is proposed by Yehezkel Dror (a member of the Club of Rome) giving alternate pathways to the future and defining the main dimensions of the strategy.
A thorough and comprehensive work, and even more relevant than when the essays were composed. This will most likely become a classic work in the field of 'Middle East/West' relations. Thought-provoking at times, mind-boggling the next, this book should be read by anyone with an interest in the conflict surrounding the Cradle of Civilization.
