Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West [Paperback]

Walid Phares (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 19, 2006

This Foreign Affairs bestseller from MSNBC terrorism expert Walid Phares allows a frightening look into the future of jihad. Phares--who has served as an expert with the Justice Department, briefed the Defense and State Departments, and testified to Congress--shows that ther has been a fundamental misunderstanding about al Qaeda's ultimate goal in the West and what victory means to jihadists. Future Jihad shows how our defenses have been infiltrated; identifies the future generation of home-grown terrorists; and points the way for America to win the ideological war at the heart of jihad.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] lucid exposition of how jihadism filled the vacuum created by the collapse of the caliphate after World War I."--Fred Siegel in The New York Sun

 

"Phares peels away the layers of misunderstanding about the jihadists that led to America's unpreparedness for what happened on September 11."--The Washington Times

 

"[Phares's] book is especially useful in detailing the denial of radical Islamism's threat before September 11."--Barry Rubin, Claremont Review of Books

 

"Remarkable . . . [Phares has] spent his life study­ing the jihad movement. He distilled that lifetime of experience and study into his book."--HSToday

 

"Phares does an exceptional job . . . reveals the essence and implications of the term jihadism in ways the average American can easily understand."--Officer

 

"As good a primer on the mind, motives, and mission of the radical Islamist--the jihadist--as I have found."--Mitt Romney

About the Author

Walid Phares is a world-renowned terrorism and Middle East expert. He is a senior fellow at The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a visiting fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy. He is an analyst on MSNBC, has testified before the State Department many times, and has led NGO delegations to discuss Middle East terrorism with the UN Security Council. He is also a professor of Middle East studies, ethnic and religious conflict at Florida Atlantic University. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, NBC, C-SPAN, al Jazeera, al Hurra, Fox News, and Abu Dhabi TV, among others, and is a frequent contributor to U.S. and international radio programs. He is the author of several books, including The War of Ideas: Jihad against Democracy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ptg thus edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403975116
• ISBN-13: 978-1403975119
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.9 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 91 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read - Outstanding November 26, 2005

By N. Fowler

Format:Hardcover

This is an outstanding book. The introduction sets the stage for a riveting read and in the first chapter Phares succeeds in explaining complicated Islamic history and Islamic teachings that have created and continue to support violent jihad in a way that anyone can understand. I could hardly put the book down. Walid Phares clearly understands the jihadists' minds. I have watched him on MSNBC. I suspect his incredible understanding is related to being born, raised, educated and having practiced law in Lebanon where terrorism against the U.S. was initiated through the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines. Phares monitors and analyzes the jihadists' websites (Arabic), has contacts in the Arab world, and is invited to debate jihadist supporting clerics and scholars on al-jazeera and other Arabic TV and radio. This book should be required reading for anyone who truly wants to understand jihad in America and abroad, the deadly threat it presents to the U.S. and the free world, and what we need to do to stop it.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BOOK TO READ ON TERRORISM January 3, 2006

By Michael D. Rose

Format:Hardcover

I love to read and have read just about every intelligent book out there on the Global War On Terrorism. WALID PHARES' BOOK IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ for the professional as well as the layman. Never has the threat we face been so clearly outlined as it is here. Jihad is not the innocent "inner struggle" or "defensive" battle that the Islamists would like us to believe, but rather it is an ongoing "offensive" battle at every level of our society - educational, political, economic, diplomatic, religious, military - to remake our nation and the world in the Islamist image. And it's being brought to you by our "good" friends the Wahabi Saudis, the Pan-Arabists, and the mad mullahs of Iran. But if you don't believe me, READ FUTURE JIHAD!

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Future is NOW December 9, 2005

By Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin

Format:Hardcover

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.