Walid Phares has written a classic book for all times. Every scholar and lay person who deals with terrorism must be sure to read this work. In addition, all law enforcement personnel and policy makers must come to grips with the ideology of jihad as deployed in current history but its antecedents and its future inevitable manifestions as well in order to make reasoned and appropriate interventions.
However, one of the most valuable aspects of this book is Dr. Phares' presentation and explication of Wahhabism, Salafism and how they have become interwoven and at times at odds with Shia Islam a la Kohmeini and Nasrallah. We can no longer afford to overlook, simplify and ignore the history of the past in the West vis a vis jihadi Islam as its 6th not so secret pillar. If I were to draw up list of the top authors and their books, I would cite Walid Phare's Future Jihad, Robert Spencer's Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, Phyllis Chesler's The New AntiSemitism and her most recent The Death of Feminism [b/c it deals with Islamic gender apartheid and no one has done that yet -- the war on terrorism is essentially a gendered war to annihilate women], Andy Bostom's The Legacy of Islam, Bat Ye'or's Eurabia, Schweitzer & Shai's The Globalization of Terror, Ben Shemesh's translation of the Quran, and the old yet invaluable Dictionary of Islam by Hughes. Phares correctly demonstrates that the Future of Jihad has arrived, it is now and we better not keep sticking our heads in the sand. His book merits more than a 10.