Terror in the Name of God

Terror in the Name of God examines terrorist violence and, particularly, how religion is used as its motivation and justification. Based on her vast scholarship and extensive personal interviews, she provides unprecedented insight into the organisations that are essential to terrorist action, and into the most effective ways to counter them. Jessica Stern lucidly explains the components of terrorist violence, demonstrating how organisations are built by opportunistic leaders who make followers of the disenfranchised and recruit them into a?? erative; personnel. Based on her extensive interviews, Stern concludes that people join religious terrorist groups partly to transform themselves and to simplify life. They enter a kind of trance, where the world is divided neatly between good and evil, victim and oppressor. They believe that God is on their side. But God, as is His wont, is silent. And this, Stern argues, leads to rage and even more violence. Eventually, in some cases, cynicism takes hold. What starts out as moral fervour becomes a sophisticated organisation that strives for money, power, or attention. Stern concludes with insights into how terrorism might most effectively be countered and explains why war is perhaps the worst solution we could choose.

Jessica Stern, the foremost U.S. expert on terrorism, is a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a faculty affiliate of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts