Sacred Rage : The Wrath of Militant Islam (Paperback)

by Robin Wright (Author) "Robert Ames, a former CIA station chief in Lebanon, had just begun a meeting with eight intelligence operatives on that brisk Monday afternoon..." (more)
Key Phrases: suicide driver, personal coverage, United States, Saudi Arabia, Middle East (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Marvin Kalb former chief diplomatic correspondent, NBC News A real public service. Robin Wright knows her subject and writes about it with style and substance. -- Review

Review
Anthony LewisSacred Rage is must reading -- and fascinating reading -- for all those who want to understand the fanatical violence of the Middle East.

Roger MuddIf ever there was the right book on the right subject for the right readers at the right time, Sacred Rage is it.

Brian Jenkinsterrorism expert, the Rand CorporationFor Americans trying to understand the campaign of terror, for leaders formulating Middle East policy, for anyone interested in a gripping story of religious fervor, political intrigue, and ruthless violence, Robin Wright's book is a must. It reads like a novel. It informs better than any book I have seen on this subject.

Houston ChronicleNo one has covered the terrorist bombings as Robin Wright does, including the origin and larger political and ethnic context in which they took place...No popular account contributes more to our understanding than Sacred Rage.

Marvin Kalbformer chief diplomatic correspondent, NBC NewsA real public service. Robin Wright knows her subject and writes about it with style and substance.

The Kansas City StarRobin Wright manages, against all odds, to get a fix on a phenomenon that is complex, elusive, and kaleidoscopic. Most impressive, however, is her ability to assess the situation with a clear eye, an objective attitude, and enormous intelligence.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Upd Sub edition (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743233425
• ISBN-13: 978-0743233422
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,589 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, leaves the judgment to the analyst, December 28, 2002

By	Ahmed (Toronto) - See all my reviews

At first glance, I figured that this would be just some anti-Islamic ranting by some silly Western infidel. (What would you expect with such a title and cover photo?) Frankly, I was surprised and impressed with what I read.

The tone seemed very inviting to me, and probably to all others interested. Page by page, Robin puts forth great detail with seemingly no pressure to please any point of view.

However, she did maybe commit an overkill on the "fundamentalist extremist militant fanatic" vocabulary. But still, her tone forces the reader to accept the terms literally, and not with the hate-filled spirit as seen in other publications.

I recommend those interested in the topic to check this one out.

God bless, and strive for peace and justice.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Updated material strengthens Sacred Rage, May 8, 2003

By	J. Gillespie "gettingthere" ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Middle Eastern terrorism almost became white noise after hostage taking, embassy bombings, hijackings, and other violent acts lost their novelty. That changed, of course, when the volume was cranked way up on September 11, 2001.

There were those who anticipated the crescendo long before it sounded. Los Angeles Times correspondent Robin Wright covered the Iranian revolution, the attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, and other regional violence and issues in the Eighties. She eloquently documented these events and their larger meaning in her seminal work, Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam, in 1985. Yet in attention span-challenged United States--even among those who read Sacred Rage--the spectacular attacks 16 years later still seemed to come as a complete shock.

Many books on Islamism were updated after September 11. The revised editions often consisted of rehashed material with new introductions and a few topical chapters tacked onto the end.

This is not the case with the trade paperback version of Sacred Rage. In fact, a very good book has achieved near greatness. Author Robin Wright's groundbreaking exploration of the rise and spread of Islamic fundamentalism does more than give tremendous context to what happened years later in Washington and New York. In a sense, the diverse material now coalesces as Wright explores the recent trend towards democracy among the same militants whose terror she covered in the Eighties. The recent edition even offers plausible solutions to conflicts between the West and the Middle East; glimmers of hope even manage to appear now and again, which should be counterintuitive.

The new chapters that involve Osama bin Laden and his view of the future are striking and fit in naturally with the other material. Wright contrasts al-Qaeda's reactionary attempts to turn the clock back to 700 with the yearning among many Iranians and Lebanese for true democracy. This different world view is, to a large degree, the product of the repression of the Shia. This suffering helped give birth to the rage and wrath Wright chronicles, and in an ironic twist the author seems to think these Muslims might be the ones to embrace a democratic and pluralistic Middle East.

There are a few problems with the new version. Wright defines the terms "fundamentalism" and "Islamist" differently from some other authors. She uses the former in an almost negative sense, and the latter favorably. Of greater concern, Wright doesn't adequately explain why an Islamist Lebanon would be so radically different from the Sudan or Saudi Arabia. Also, her comparisons between America's Religious Right and Islamic fundamentalists are way over the top in 2003.

These are only minor gripes, though. Sacred Rage is more relevant today than it was when first published. Also, Wright has softened her near-apologies for the more extreme behavior she documented. This version sheds light on the struggle between those Muslims who want both democracy and Islam, and those who only want theocracy. That struggle inevitably involves the United States and the West. Sacred Rage suggests the West's interaction with the Muslim world can be constructive. This is preferable to the suggestion of an inevitable clash of civilizations. That gloom and doom scenario usually is offered by those whose knowledge of the region pales in comparison with others who always heard the background noise of potential violence and reported it years before the first plane slammed into the World Trade Center.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recent History, August 26, 2002

By	TheHighlander (Richfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews

Sacred Rage covers mostly recent history in the Middle east, from the 1980s forward. But this is the time period of the rise of militant Islam which this book seeks to address. It covers most of the Islamic countries, their leaders and their dissidents.

The book talks of the many terrorists attacks and their reasons, the perpetrators and the affects. Has the U.S. position in the Middle East hurt our standing? What has our military done in the Middle East in the last 20 years? How did the U.S. Governments miscalculations hurt us in Islamic eyes? What has Iran's role in world terrorism been? What are the differences between Shia and Sunni Muslims? Why do the Middle Eastern countries and people hate the west so much? For some insights and answers to these and many more questions, read this book.

This book goes a long way to explaining the many questions just asked. It explores the sometimes strained relations among the countries of the Middle East with each other. How do Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia get along? This book is insightful and provocative. I recommend it as a start to understanding what has been happening in our world in the last quarter of a century.

This book is a good starting place.