How to Win a Cosmic War

Nov 16, 2024 10:33 AM

Author:Reza Aslan

*Why do they hate us? An entire cottage industry has arisen to answer this question. But what no one has really figured out is, who exactly are they? Is it al-Qaeda? Islamic nationalists? The whole Muslim world?

*HOW TO WIN A COSMIC WAR lays out, for the first time, a comprehensive definition of the movement behind and surrounding al-Qaeda and the like, a global ideology properly termed Jihadism.

*Contrasting twenty-first-century religious extremism across Christianity, Judaism and Islam with its historical antecedents, Aslan demonstrates that while modern Jihadis may have legitimate social grievances - the suffering of the Palestinians, American support for Arab dictators, the presence of foreign troops in Muslim lands, to name a few - they have no real goals or actual agenda.

*So, what do the Jihadists want? Aslan's answer is: Nothing. The Jihadists have no earthly agenda; they are fighting a metaphysical conflict, a theological war. And ever since 9/11, we have unfortunately been fighting the same cosmic war, the war they want: the so-called 'War on Terror'.

*How do we win a Cosmic War? By refusing to fight in one. And in this stunning new work, Aslan reveals surprising conclusions about how we can deal with this predicament.

Reviews

Compelling, penetrative and timely. If more of us in the West grasp Aslan's arguments, we will begin to win the war of ideas against Jihadists and extremists.

—— Ed Husain, author of The Islamist

excellent

—— paul sims, Guardian

absorbing, thought-provoking and illuminating... Few writers are as well qualified to tackle the terrain... Aslan's book represents nothing less than a call to arms, a clear-eyed and impassioned remidner that the most effective way to win a cosmic war is to triumph in the battle for hearts and minds at home.

—— Sarfraz Manzoor, Guardian

What is refreshing about Aslan's book is its breadth and its impartiality.

—— Telegraph

'Offers a very persuasive argument for the best way to counter jihadism."

—— The Washington Post

"Insightful, well-argued...tracks the history of antiestablishment thinking
in the Islamic world"

—— Daily Beast

intelligent...a thought provoking book and the chapter on the radicalisation of Europe's young is particularly useful...Aslan opens up many fruitful areas of enquiry

—— Jason Burke , Observer

This is a stunned appreciation of an 'otherness' beyond the reach of language, and for Armstrong, constitutes the heart of every religion

—— New Statesmen

Soskice tells the story with scholarly conviction... [This] biography is one to be earmarked

—— www.thebookbag.co.uk

An ambitious and attractive book. Its tone is learned, thoughtful and usually intimate...a finely balanced and well-told experiment that will echo with many readers

—— Independent

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