New Year Bundle Get Ready for Winter Weather The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect The Rosie Effect Shop Men's Running Shoes Shop Men's Running Shoes Shop All Men's Learn more nav_sap_plcc_6M_fly_blackbelt $5 Albums New Year in Beauty Shop now Amazon Deals Digital Week Warner 2015 Preview Shop Sports Deals Shop Sports Deals Shop Exercise & Fitness Toys & Games Deals Get Fire phone plus 12 months of Prime for only $0.99 Shop Fire HD 6 Shop Amazon Fire TV Year-End Kindle Daily Deals
The Mind of Jihad and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
Qty:1
  • List Price: $29.99
  • Save: $3.24 (11%)
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Pages are free from writing, creases and tears. Binding is tight.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

The Mind of Jihad Paperback – October 16, 2008


See all 6 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
Paperback
"Please retry"
$26.75
$10.83 $5.00
Best%20Books%20of%202014


Frequently Bought Together

The Mind of Jihad + Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles)
Price for both: $39.44

Buy the selected items together
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Best Books of the Month
Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 376 pages
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (October 16, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0521730635
  • ISBN-13: 978-0521730631
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #879,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  •  Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?


Editorial Reviews

Review

"An unsparing study of Islamic Radicalism, anchored in the data and the histories of Islam's movements. Laurent Murawiec has produced a work of genuine and subtle learning, a book that situates Islamism in the broader context of millenarian movements the world over. I believe that this is a work that will make for itself a sure place in the Writings on Islamic Radicalism. An author at once brave and disciplined."
-Fouad Ajami, Johns Hopkins University

"Murawiec argues that the intellectual lineage of Modern Jihad goes beyond its proximate causes and alleged grievances; he shows that its ideological roots run deep in history, in culture, in heresy and in its affinity to the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. His thesis will anger some and challenge others, but it will have to be taken seriously by anyone wanting to understand modern terror."
-Mark T. Clark, California State University, San Bernardino, President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa

"Laurent Murawiec draws on a remarkable range of historical, religious, ideological and ideational sources. The breadth and insight of his treatment deserve comparison with the work of Bernard Lewis, while breaking new ground in shaping our understanding of the contemporary jihad movement and in particular what Murawiec describes as, 'the etiology of such a love of death, a worship of blood, a cult of violence.' This is a sophisticated, original, yet highly readable book, unflinching in its description and analysis. Murawiec makes the case that the structure of violent jihadist ideology mirrors the millenarian insurrections that wreaked havoc in Europe from 1100 to 1550. Those movements arose under conditions of intense social dislocation caused by rapid change and which triggered individual and societal disorientation, anomie and loss of confidence in established religion and authority. By implication, some of the same deep societal impulses have been at work in contemporary Arab Muslim societies."
-Robert J. Lieber, Georgetown University

"Wars are first fought in the mind before they are fought on the battlefield. Understanding one's enemy, beginning with the fact that an enemy exists with intelligible world historical ambitions, is the first principle of war and peace. Laurent Murawiec's detailed The Mind of Jihad is a book many will not want to know about; it is too detailed, too sweeping, too accurate to leave much room for doubt about the nature and seriousness of purpose of those who in fact war against us with dedicated purpose. Murawiec writes clearly, frankly. His intended audience includes Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Chinese, and all, scholarly or ordinary, who seek to come to grips with the intellectual origins and purposes of the Jihad, including especially those who recently insist that the word cannot be used among us, its primary objects."
-James V. Schall, S. J., Georgetown University

" With its grim detail and relentless documentation of human cruelty and savagery, this is a difficult, but important book to read"
- Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

"Readers find help in this timely book. It contains a proper diagnosis, without which there will not be a proper healing. According to Murawiec, jihad - fateful and shrouded in darkness - like a Sphinx transfixes us. The common analysis of jihadism in Washington, the author laments, suffers from being mono-causal and ahistorical. The expressions 'war on terror' and 'terrorism' merely focus on the tool, but fail to capture the essence of terror as continuation of politics and a system of power."
Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, The Middle East Journal

"Laurent Murawiec's The Mind of Jihad offers a different perspective. Discounting both the grievance and Islam-as-innately-violent models, Murawiec explores certain untapped areas of research in order to show correlations between radical Islam and any number of uniquely Western concepts and patterns, both philosophical and historical."
Raymond Ibrahim, The Weekly Standard and Middle East Forum

"While a comprehensive examination of Israeli society is beyond the scope of the book, the authors intend to provide the reader with some 'snapshots' of significant events, decisions, and developments that have played a role in Israel's ongoing search for self-identity. Specific attention is given to changing demographics and the interaction between the various segments of Israeli society that include national, ethnic, and religious groups. The authors also examine various shocks to the system, including the first and second Lebanon wars, the first and second Intifadas, and the peace process of the 1990s."
Maxwell Martin, Middle East Journal

"Terrorists are produced by a totalitarian ideology justifying terrorism. That is its 'root cause.'...This, then, is the book for those who wish to explore the 'root cause' in the ideas that give moral legitimacy to Islamist terrorism...Murawiec's research into the working relationship between the Soviet Union and Islamism is original and startling...The Mind of Jihad takes the discussion precisely in the direction in which it needs to go if we are to understand and prevail in this new war of ideas."
-Robert R. Reilly, American Foreign Policy Council, Claremont Review of Books

Book Description

This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. Murawiec compares this belief structure to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics and traces their political technologies to the Bolsheviks, using history, anthropology, and theology to understand the mind of jihad, which has declared war on the West.

Customer Reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful By Ralph H. Peters on November 9, 2008
Format: Hardcover
A reviewer should focus on the book, not celebrate his own prejudices and bigotry--as the previous reviewer of this book has done. Has he even read it? This valuable, cooly rational work is not a rant of any sort, but a careful historical analysis, based upon decades of studying the background material. Author Murawiec does not impose his own pre-formed views; instead, he does exactly what a serious researcher should do: He allows terrorists and the extremist thinkers who formed their beliefs to speak in their own words. Upon hundreds of occasion in this book, we hear the chilling, to-the-point (of the sword) writings, pronouncements and sermons of radical Islamist thinkers over the centuries. The author does, in my view, a brilliant, pithy job of describing how certain streams within Islam (not Islam as a whole) have constructed their own deviant theologies of death. Does the previous reviewer object to we, the people, hearing what our enemies have said for themselves? If we are ever to get beyond the totalitarian prejudices on both the extreme political left and right in our own country, it will be because concerned citizens read and think about serious works such as this (no mind develops if fed only comfortable, unchallenging food). And let us remember: Over the centuries and unto this day, the all-or-nothing fanatics who have afflicted Islam have killed far, far more Muslims than they have killed non-Muslims. The problem isn't faith, but fanaticism that corrupts faith. On a lesser level, unfair reviews scribbled down in a fit of political pique only make things worse. If we are unwilling to hear that which is uncomfortable, it will be far more difficult for us to do what is right. I strongly recommend this book for serious readers.
1 Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful By Matthew Smith on August 31, 2009
Format: Hardcover
The first chapter in this book simply falls flat due to the author's casting of an overly broad net, and then trying to fit his evidence to his conclusions. The author uses Browning's Ordinary Men to compare and contrast the differences between violence from Muslims and Christians. The problem is the comparison in his context is not appropriate. The Einsatzgruppen was comprised of a wide variety of disparate men from differing backgrounds. Most of these men were recruited or drafted into their service and very few knew what they were going to be asked to do and even fewer volunteered. The Muslim extremists he compares them to, on the other hand, are voluntarily committing these acts. These men are not drafted, but instead seek out this violent confrontation. For this very reason the two are not appropriate comparisons. Furthermore Murawiec fails to acknowledge that in Browning's study he found that a certain percentage of men from the Einsatzgruppen showed no moral qualms at all with their new found duties. In fact a certain percentage seemed to relish the torture and brutalization of their victims. In fact Browning's own research actually contradicts this author's very assertion. The author either completely missed the point of Browning's book, or he has misused or taken him completely out of context for his own purposes.

The other main problem is the author is overly broad when discussing the different types of Muslim violence. He uses contemporary violence in the forms of the videoed executions and suicide bombers with state violence and public executions. The problem with this technique is that it melds the two different forms of violence into a single strand but they are vastly different.
Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful By A. L. Martin on December 6, 2008
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is an extraordinarily well informed, intelligent, and deep book on its subject. It sets the problem of jihad in the context of analogous, gnostic movements within Western, Christian culture, at the same time that it gives a time line and a profile of the extra-Islammic (illiberal) influences that have shaped the contemporary phenomenon of radical Islamism.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful By Van Isle Rev on January 4, 2010
Format: Paperback
Murawiec's look at the "mind of Jihad" is not light reading. It is a tough read in two senses: tough because it contains a wealth of information to sift through and tough because some of that information is deeply disturbing. What Murawiec attempts to describe is the extent to which the radicalization of Islam that has taken place over the past 100 years, owes at least part of its shape to the Islamic world's interaction with radical European utopianism, especially in its deadliest forms: National Socialism and Marxist-Leninism. Those who would accuse Murawiec of anti-Islamic bias, should have a close look at the book's second chapter in which Murawiec compares what he regards as the authentic Islamic outlook on "the good life" with what he regards as its "Gnostic" distortion. Nor is he hesitant to critique Christian and Jewish thinkers who have embraced Gnostic" dualisms similar to the ones that have prompted radical Islamic leaders to justify violence in the name of their faith. By no means a perfect book (the narrative thread could, at times have been tighter), this is nevertheless an intriguing and thoughtful look at a complex dimension of the modern world from which none of us can pretend ourselves immune.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback. If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again