Tolerating Intolerance The Price of Protecting Extremism

Over the years, numerous tragic events serve as a reminder of the extraordinary power of extremism, both on a religious and secular level. As extremism confronts society on a daily basis, it is essential to analyze, comprehend, and define it. It is also essential to define extremism narrowly in order to avoid the danger of recklessly castigating for mere thoughts alone.

Tolerating Intolerance provides readers with a focused definition of extremism, and articulates the tensions faced in casting an arbitrary, capricious net in an effort to protect society, while offering mechanisms to resolve its seemingly intractable conundrum. Professor Guiora examines extremism in six different countries: Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States through interviews with a wide range of individuals including academics, policy makers, faith leaders, public commentators, national security and law enforcement officials. This enables both an in-depth discussion of extremism in each country, and facilitates a comparative analysis regarding both religious and secular extremism.

Amos Guiora is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Global Justice at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, the University of Utah, where he teaches Criminal Procedure, International Law, Global Perspectives on Counterterrorism and Religion and Terrorism. Professor Guiora is a Member of the American Bar Association's Law and National Security Advisory Committee; a Research Associate at the University of Oxford, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict; a Research Fellow at the International Institute on Counter-Terrorism, The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzylia, Israel; and a Corresponding Member, The Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, University of Utrecht School of Law. He received grants from both the Stuart Family Foundation and the Earhart Foundation, was awarded a Senior Specialist Fulbright Fellowship for The Netherlands in 2008, and awarded the S.J. Quinney College of Law Faculty Scholarship Award in 2011. He served for 19 years in the Israel Defense Forces as Lieutenant Colonel (retired), and held a number of senior command positions, including Commander of the IDF School of Military Law and Legal Advisor to the Gaza Strip. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee; the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security; and the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Dutch House of Representatives. Professor Guiora has published extensively on issues related to national security, limits of interrogation, religion and terrorism, and the limits of power, multiculturalism and human rights. He is the author of Legitimate Target: A Criteria Based Approach to Targeted Killing; Freedom from Religion: Rights and National Security; Global Perspectives on Counterterrorism; Fundamentals of Counterterrorism; Constitutional Limits on Coercive Interrogation; Homeland Security: What is it and Where is it Going; and Geopolitics and Security: Sovereignty, Intervention and the Law (forthcoming, 2013).