Customer Reviews

Why the Nations Rage

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This book addresses the problem of sectarian strife, with Yugoslavia as the primary example. Even though this book was published in 1998, this author had already gleaned a clearer understanding of the nature of religious-based terrorism than that articulated in any post 9/11 book that I can recall. Especially compelling is the author's ability to place the reader in the world of the unfortunate civilian of a nation suffering from religious conflict--whether that be Iraq, Afghanistan, or Yugoslavia. He asks you to imagine what such a conflict would be like in your own (Western) country and community--bringing to my mind a horrible world where (for example) Catholics were set against Protestants. He reminds us that in order to protect ourselves and our family in such a world, we might be forced to ally ourselves with unsavory elements formerly considered to be on the fringe of the religious or ethnic group that we were born into--a situation almost too terrible to contemplate!

This is a great book - it really helped me to understand what is happening in this war torn part of the world, especially all that is happening in Kosovo right now.