Readers' rating:
Published in USA
Sep 2006
192 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs & Science
Publication Information
An important study of the little-known history of the Wahhabi, a fundamentalist Islamic tribe whose teachings influence today's extreme Islamic terrorists, including the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.
In today's post-9/11 world, the everyday news shows us images of fanatic fighters and suicide bombers willing to die in holy war, martyrs for jihad. But what are the roots of this militant fundamentalism in the Muslim world? In this insightful and wide-ranging history, Charles Allen finds an answer in the eighteenth-century reform movement of Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers—the Wahhabi—who sought the restoration of Islamic purity and declared violent jihad on all who opposed them, Moslems and pagans alike.
God's Terrorists sheds shocking light on the historical roots of modern terrorism and shows how this dangerous theology lives on today.
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"British author Allen argues persuasively that violent Islamic extremism isn't as new as we might think, but unfortunately, his book doesn't do much to explain the phenomenon." - PW.
"This narrative has a grafted-on feel, but it is still of use to those seeking to understand the origins and growth of Islamic extremism." - Kirkus.
"Allen takes us back to the emergence of violent Wahhabism in the 1740s…Completely riveting." - The Guardian.
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