Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America

by Walid Phares

Book Overview

This Foreign Affairs bestseller from MSNBC terrorism expert Walid Phares allows a frightening look into the future of jihad. Phares--who has served as an expert with the Justice Department, briefed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403970742
• ISBN13: 9781403970749
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 277 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A must read for all...

"Future Jihad" is a thorough, detailed, and fact based (not conspiracy theory or emotion based) expose of radical Salafist Islamic Jihadist terrorism. Dr. Phares is from Lebanon, speaks, reads, and writes Arabic, and has studied terrorism for over 20 years. He now works for MSNBC as a Middle Eastern affairs expert. Dr. Phares was one of a handful of people in America trying to warn the U.S. government, BEFORE 9/11, that a terrorist attack on our soil was imminent. Unfortunately, Dr. Phares and his colleagues were shouted down by the majority of Middle Eastern affairs experts in the U.S., products of our university system (many of whom can teach, but cannot do). Among other things, he was called a "NEOCON" who was trying to start a war (for oil). Interestingly, another reviewer on this site, who first praises Dr. Phares work, then calls him a "NEOCON"(sound familiar?) and criticizes him for not identyfying Dick Cheney, big oil, and Wall Street as the real causes of 9/11. This is exactly the kind of political rhetoric that Phares said left us so wide open to terrorism; we were so busy fighting each other, that we took our attention off our real enemy. I am especially disturbed by this reviewer because Dr. Phares goes out of his way to leave politics out of his book. He targets no one, calls no one any names, and seeks only to reveal the facts behind terrorism. In fact, after reading this book, it is impossible to tell what political party, if any, Dr. Phares belongs to. This same reviewer accuses Dr. Phares of overlooking "the larger context of the war on terrorism." In few words, he is upset that Dr. Phares does not blame America for 9/11. Allegedly our support for 44 dictators (usually because the alternative ruler was even worse than that one; even Americans say, "I am voting for "candidate x" only because he or she is not as bad as "candidate y,") Dick Cheney (who was never cited by the 9/11 commission as having any culpabilty in the 9/11 attacks), big oil (which fuels the economy of all of Western Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and North America and keeps us all warm, housed, clothed, fed, and employed), and Wall Street (which also keeps the ecomomies of the developed world running and their people warm, housed, clothed, fed, and employed; there is no Wall Street in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, there are no paradises flourishing there), as the reasons for terrorist attacks before, during, and after 9/11. In few words, this reviewer has a Marxist worldview, and sees the capitalist, democratic republics of the West and the East, which give their people the highest standard of living in the world, the best education in the world, and the most civil rights in the world, as responsible for terrorism. If the U.S. were only a Marxist paradise like North Korea (where millions are cold and starving), Cuba (from which people risk drowning at sea to flee), Vietman (which slaughtered ONE MILLION people after the U.S. left and uses steamrollers

A must read for all...

"Future Jihad" is a thorough, detailed, and fact based (not conspiracy theory or emotion based) expose of radical Salafist Islamic Jihadist terrorism. Dr. Phares is from Lebanon, speaks, reads, and writes Arabic, and has studied terrorism for over 20 years. He now works for MSNBC as a Middle Eastern affairs expert. Dr. Phares was one of a handful of people in America trying to warn the U.S. government, BEFORE 9/11, that a terrorist attack on our soil was imminent. Unfortunately, Dr. Phares and his colleagues were shouted down by the majority of Middle Eastern affairs experts in the U.S., products of our university system (many of whom can teach, but cannot do). Among other things, he was called a "NEOCON" who was trying to start a war (for oil). Interestingly, another reviewer on this site, who first praises Dr. Phares work, then calls him a "NEOCON"(sound familiar?) and criticizes him for not identyfying Dick Cheney, big oil, and Wall Street as the real causes of 9/11. This is exactly the kind of political rhetoric that Phares said left us so wide open to terrorism; we were so busy fighting each other, that we took our attention off our real enemy. I am especially disturbed by this reviewer because Dr. Phares goes out of his way to leave politics out of his book. He targets no one, calls no one any names, and seeks only to reveal the facts behind terrorism. In fact, after reading this book, it is impossible to tell what political party, if any, Dr. Phares belongs to. This same reviewer accuses Dr. Phares of overlooking "the larger context of the war on terrorism." In few words, he is upset that Dr. Phares does not blame America for 9/11. Allegedly our support for 44 dictators (usually because the alternative ruler was even worse than that one; even Americans say, "I am voting for "candidate x" only because he or she is not as bad as "candidate y,") Dick Cheney (who was never cited by the 9/11 commission as having any culpabilty in the 9/11 attacks), big oil (which fuels the economy of all of Western Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and North America and keeps us all warm, housed, clothed, fed, and employed), and Wall Street (which also keeps the ecomomies of the developed world running and their people warm, housed, clothed, fed, and employed; there is no Wall Street in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, but I do not see a paradise flourishing there), as the reasons for terrorist attacks before, during, and after 9/11. In few words, this reviewer has a Marxist worldview, and sees the capitalist, democratic republics of the West and the East, which give their people the highest standard of living in the world, the best education in the world, and the most civil rights in the world, as responsible for terrorism. If the U.S. were only a Marxist paradise like North Korea (where millions are cold and starving), Cuba (from which people risk drowning at sea to flee), Vietman (which slaughtered ONE MILLION people after the U.S. left and uses steamro

THE BOOK TO READ ON TERRORISM

I love to read and have read just about every intelligent book out there on the Global War On Terrorism. WALID PHARES' BOOK IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ for the professional as well as the layman. Never has the threat we face been so clearly outlined as it is here. Jihad is not the innocent "inner struggle" or "defensive" battle that the Islamists would like us to believe, but rather it is an ongoing "offensive" battle at every level of our society - educational, political, economic, diplomatic, religious, military - to remake our nation and the world in the Islamist image. And it's being brought to you by our "good" friends the Wahabi Saudis, the Pan-Arabists, and the mad mullahs of Iran. But if you don't believe me, READ FUTURE JIHAD!

The Future is NOW

Walid Phares has written a classic book for all times. Every scholar and lay person who deals with terrorism must be sure to read this work. In addition, all law enforcement personnel and policy makers must come to grips with the ideology of jihad as deployed in current history but its antecedents and its future inevitable manifestions as well in order to make reasoned and appropriate interventions. However, one of the most valuable aspects of this book is Dr. Phares' presentation and explication of Wahhabism, Salafism and how they have become interwoven and at times at odds with Shia Islam a la Kohmeini and Nasrallah. We can no longer afford to overlook, simplify and ignore the history of the past in the West vis a vis jihadi Islam as its 6th not so secret pillar. If I were to draw up list of the top authors and their books, I would cite Walid Phare's Future Jihad, Robert Spencer's Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, Phyllis Chesler's The New AntiSemitism and her most recent The Death of Feminism [b/c it deals with Islamic gender apartheid and no one has done that yet -- the war on terrorism is essentially a gendered war to annihilate women], Andy Bostom's The Legacy of Islam, Bat Ye'or's Eurabia, Schweitzer & Shai's The Globalization of Terror, Ben Shemesh's translation of the Quran, and the old yet invaluable Dictionary of Islam by Hughes. Phares correctly demonstrates that the Future of Jihad has arrived, it is now and we better not keep sticking our heads in the sand. His book merits more than a 10.

A Must Read - Outstanding

This is an outstanding book. The introduction sets the stage for a riveting read and in the first chapter Phares succeeds in explaining complicated Islamic history and Islamic teachings that have created and continue to support violent jihad in a way that anyone can understand. I could hardly put the book down. Walid Phares clearly understands the jihadists' minds. I have watched him on MSNBC. I suspect his incredible understanding is related to being born, raised, educated and having practiced law in Lebanon where terrorism against the U.S. was initiated through the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines. Phares monitors and analyzes the jihadists' websites (Arabic), has contacts in the Arab world, and is invited to debate jihadist supporting clerics and scholars on al-jazeera and other Arabic TV and radio. This book should be required reading for anyone who truly wants to understand jihad in America and abroad, the deadly threat it presents to the U.S. and the free world, and what we need to do to stop it.