War of Ideas: Jihad against Democracy

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War of Ideas: Jihad against Democracy Pub. Date: 2/20/2007 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

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Overview

From Afghanistan and Iraq to Europe and the United States we are engaged in one of the most heated wars of all time. In this incisive new book, the man that has been called—the only one to understand the mind of the jihadist—shows that the most important battle is actually taking place in the hearts and minds of the world's population. This is the war of ideas, where ideology is the most powerful weapon of all. Phares explores the beliefs of two opposing camps, one standing for democracy and human rights, and the other rejecting the idea of an international community and calling for jihad against the West. He reveals the strategies of both sides, explaining that new technologies and the growing media savvy of the jihadists have raised the stakes in the conflict. And most urgently, he warns that the West is in danger of losing the war, for whereas debate and theorizing rarely translate into action here, ideas and deeds are inextricably linked for the forces of jihad.

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"From China's borders to the Atlantic Ocean, masses are being taught to hate the other side of the world and blame it for all evil."Phares, a Lebanese-born policy analyst and television commentator, is no alarmist; in public discussions of U.S.-Middle Eastern affairs, he is a voice of calm and reason. Yet, he urges, there really is such a thing as a terrorist Muslim enemy, a class of person he calls a jihadist, who takes literally Islam's call for jihad, or war against the infidel. This term, Phares argues, has been denatured and defused: An academia friendly to Saudi interests (because it's funded by them) has assured worried Americans that "jihad is essentially a spiritual experience," just as Harvard think-tankers once called the Taliban "elements of stability." "Since 9/11," he concludes, "many Western political and academic establishments have generally caved in to the jihadi intellectual offensive." Well, jihad is jihad, the author says, wrapped up in a pan-Arabist, Islamist (though jihadists and Islamists aren't necessarily one and the same), Baathist, generally fascist ideology that demands the restoration of the caliphate to wage endless war against all nonbelievers. These jihadists want not only that, Phares adds; they also want to roll back the clock, remove from Islamic minds anything that smacks of Western modernism. To that end, they have made allies of neo-Nazis, promulgated antifeminist-and anti-women-doctrines far beyond anything in the Qur'an and, of course, launched vicious attacks on Westerners, and not in 2001 alone. If there was a bright note to 9/11, Phares concludes, it was at least to highlight that the jihadists mean business. He asks that those in the West whowould rise to the challenge "make a clear distinction between the majority of Muslims who seek freedom, democracy, and pluralism and the Islamists and jihadists who oppose all of these." He warns that the challenge cannot be ignored. Provocative reading. First printing of 100,000

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781403976390
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date: 2/20/2007
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 871,281
Product dimensions: 6.25 (w) x 9.50 (h) x 0.87 (d)

Meet the Author

Walid Phares is a world-renowned terrorism and Middle East expert. He is a senior fellow at The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a visiting fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy. He has testified before the State Department many times and led NGO delegations to discuss Middle East terrorism with the UN Security Council. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, al Jazeera, al Hurra, Fox News, and Abu Dhabi TV, among others, and is a frequent contributor to U.S. and international radio programs. A professor of Middle East Studies at Florida Atlantic University, he holds a doctorate in international relations and strategic studies. He is the author of several books, including Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against the West.

The Historical Debates

• The Antidemocracy Axis

• Irreconcilable Views

• The Jihadi War on International Principles

• The Assault on Pluralism

• Democracy's Pillars under Attack

• Gender Apartheid

• The First War of Ideas, 1945-1990

• Battles over Minds: The Second War of Ideas, 1990-2001

• The Clash of Futures: The Third War of Ideas, 2001-2006

• The War on Learning

• Inflaming Hearts and Fooling Minds

• War on the Messengers

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Anonymous

Posted May 29, 2007

Why the US congress doesn't 'get it'.

The author is an Arabic spealing scholar who has produced a referenced work depiocting the three phases of the War of Ideas that the jihadis have successfully launched. His conclusion in part is that if we do not defeat the jihadis there will be no safe place to hide. Excellent discussion of the way petrodollars were used to 'buy off' our own academic expertise often without the academics realizing it.

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