Future Islam
Explore the future of Islam through essential books like *The Age of Sacred Terror* by Daniel Benjamin and *What Went Wrong?* by Bernard Lewis. This curated list offers critical insight into religion, history, and modern geopolitics, covering political science and the West's relationship with the Islamic world.
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What Went Wrong?
by Bernard Lewis
For centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement -- the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed. The West won victory after victory, first on the battlefield and then in the marketplace. In this elegantly written volume, Bernard Lewis, a renowned authority an Islamic affairs, examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tried to make sense of how it had been overtaken, overshadowed, and dominated by the West. In a fascinating portrait of a culture in turmoil, Lewis shows how the Middle East turned its attention to understanding European weaponry, industry, government, education, and culture. He also describes how some Middle Easterners fastened blame on a series of scapegoats, while others asked not "Who did this to us?" but rather "Where did we go wrong?" With a new Afterword that addresses September 11 and its aftermath, What Went Wrong? is an urgent, accessible book that no one who is concerned with contemporary affairs will want to miss.
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The Age of Sacred Terror
by Daniel Benjamin
Winner of the 2004 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations From two of the worldās foremost experts on the new terrorism comes the deļ¬nitive book on the rise of al-Qaeda and Americaās efforts to combat the most innovative and dangerous terrorist group ever. Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon trace the growth of radical Islam from its medieval origins and, drawing on their years of counter-terrorism work at the National Security Council, provide essential insights into the thinking of Usama bin Laden and his followers. With unique authority, they analyze why America was unable to defend itself against this revolutionary threat on September 11, 2001, why bin Ladenās apocalyptic creed is gaining ground in the Islamic world, and what the United States must do to stop the new terror.
