Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill

Both religion and technology are seductive in their ability to both soothe and explain - but both are dangerous in the hands of zealots of either discipline. Stern, a Harvard professor and former fellow on terrorism at the Council on Foreign Relations, expands her definition of religious terrorists worldwide by including the Muslim jihad in Indonesia, militant Palestinians, zealous Israelis, and Americans who kill abortion doctors in the name of Christianity. Stern outlines how militants of all persuasions find recruits and recondition them in cultlike sects to embrace suicide and murder.Stern spent 5+ years traveling worldwide to research this book, which combines psychology and forensic science in a remarkable study that all who are interested in keeping abreast of the growing role of religious terrorism should be required to read.

I have grown utterly weary of the explosion of terrorism studies following 9/11, but this book held me rapt from beginning to end. Stern has written a deeply personal work far removed from either dry academic prose or "I was there" anecdotes without losing the ability to present a fairly balanced view across a number of regions and religions. The result is a remarkable look at both the personalities of those she interviewed and her sometimes startlingly honest reactions to each one. Her style is solid and the footnotes are filled with extensive, valuable resources for further reading. This is not a good buy for those readers that prefer the author remain detached from his or her subject, but in my opinion it is Stern's first-person style, descriptive narrative and open revelation of her thoughts and reactions to each subject that makes this an especially powerful work.

Jessica Stern's book "Terror in the name of God" can be divided into three parts. The first part consists of interviews with terrorists. This was absolutely amazing. Imagine this young Jewish woman interviewing anti-Semitic Palestinians! Nevertheless she was able to extract a great deal of interesting information from them. Surely many of them lied to her -- but the lies are useful too.Of course, they were all different. They shared the ability to dehumanize their victims - an ability that seems to be shared by some of the people who have reviewed this book - but were different in other ways. This part of the book was very readable and served as the background for the other two parts.The second part consists of theoretical discussions describing the structure of the terrorist movements and how they worked, and also included some interesting material on the nature of leadership.The third part "Conclusions/Policy Recommendations" brings it all to a head. She points out that a terrorist organization has a life of its own. The adherents become financially dependent on it - and in its charity mode the entire community becomes dependent on it. What happens, then, when the organization achieves its aims, as it did when the Taliban (with US aid) ejected the Soviet Union and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. These organizations cannot simply disband. She suggests that we should hire them and they should become part of our anti-terrorist program.We all know that many (perhaps most) of the madrassahs (the Islamic schools) teach terrorism and recruit suicide bombers. But these are the free schools and poor students can get their lunch there. The state schools are expensive. We should be encouraging the development of public schools to compete with the madrassahs. In fact, the WTO and the World Bank discourage the development of public schools on the theory that they are a needless expense that poor countries cannot afford. This policy is dead wrong! They should be encouraging investment in education as an economic policy as well as a humanitarian one.There were other suggestions as well but I will stop here. If you are interested read her book.

In surveying books on terrorism for my college course, I found this one of the best. Wish it wasn't hardcover! Stern analyzes the different types of reasons for terrorism (humiliation, alienation, demographics, territory, and history) and explains both on the psychological and sociological level how they operate. She also explains how the different methods of terrorism operate to bring about the psychological trance/bliss state, how terrorists become as well as their logistical operations. She describes charismatic leaders, commanders and cadres, lone wolves, and freelance franchises as forms of organization and the sometimes mixed motives of their members. She discusses terrorist organizations' relationships with states, weapons acquistion and type, recruit training, and techniques to enhance commitment. The book covers much the same territory that Mark Juergensmeyer's "Terror in the Mind of God" covers. He does it more elegantly, with more depth, and with many of the same insights and conclusions, but Stern provides more information on the nature of organizations and a better categorization of motives. This is the broader book.If you have strong ideological beliefs or interests in parties involved with or affected by terrorism, you probably won't like the book. Christian terrorism and Jewish terrorism exist, albeit on a vastly lower level than Islamic terrorism at the moment, but the forces behind all kinds of terrorism have much in common, as this book points out. If we can't get past emotional reactions and judgments to understand why and how these terrible and tragic events occur, then we only contribute to their perpetuation, not their alleviation.

With the avalanche of books on terrorism and Islam cluttering the bookstores and library shelves, I was hesitant to plunge into this one. I am glad I reconsidered. It is a remarkable account using primary sources, primarily insiders or inmates who have been active in pursuing their perfidious goals. Many are the actual villains in some of the high profile terrorist crimes of our era. Sparing a lot of details and personalities, you can discover them for yourself, it is enough to say that Stern has traveled the globe to conduct her interviews and compile her research. From American Fundamentalists with their addiction to targeting abortion clinics for destruction; to Hamas; Indonesians, Pakistanis et al committed to their respective jihads, the author gives a comprehensive, and often eye opening glimpse at the inside operations of a vast cross section of groups. In establishing a common thread of psychological and economic profiles of the recruits for various terrorist groups, Stern provides useful insight for those wishing to comprehend some of the most menacing ideologues in our modern world. The story is all the more remarkable as Stern is an American professor, female, and Jewish; yet she manages, occasionally at potential risk to her safety, to penetrate conservative Muslim strongholds to obtain her information. This is scholarly, but still well organized and readable, and I highly recommend it as a first stop for anyone seeking to get a good handle on this important issue.