Radical Origins

More than thirteen years after the "War on Terror" was declared, many in the West now feel less secure than ever before. Many security experts believe global Jihad is on the rise throughout the West, and yet these same experts do not know how to stop the rising tide. Military action abroad and police action at home have only attended to the symptoms of terrorism, not the cause. The root, according to Dr. Ibrahim, is actually the extreme ideology of Wahhabism—the puritanical, reactionary, isolationist, xenophobic, and bigoted sect of Sunni Islam that has been the ideological bedrock of the state of Saudi Arabia since its original rise in the 18th Century. Foreign policy, socio-economic factors, alienation, and identity are often invoked in explaining the rise in radicalization, and while they do have a role to play, these are secondary factors. The primary cause is ideology.In The Radical Virus, Dr. Ibrahim will provide an accessible primer on radicalism, an understanding of jihadist history, and a way forward, debunking misconceptions about Islam and this jihadist offshoot along the way. This remarkable work culminates in a powerful body of evidence about how to contain, reduce, and stop the spread of radicalization once and for all.

Dr. Azeem Ibrahim earned his doctorate at Cambridge University and has lectured at the U.S. Army War College, Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago. He was the CEO of a global consultancy firm and worked in international finance before turning to policy work. He is the author of several academic papers and has written for the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Foreign Policy and CBS News. He has advised the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the U.S. State Department, and more. He is currently a fellow at Oxford University and splits his time between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.