Author Description

Religious terrorism did not begin on September 11, 2001 in the USA. The attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon did, though, bring to the attention of the wider world a phenomenon that has been in existence for many years across the world.Religious terrorism, properly understood, is a lethal mix of modern terrorism with beliefs whose claimed origins date back hundreds or thousands of years. Such terrorism is not simply an Islamic phenomenon, since all religions, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist alike contain extremist adherents for whom terror is the only way forward in a confusing and threatening world. Westerners are being killed in the USA and in Bali, but Muslims are the victims in India and Bosnia.In this book, Christopher Catherwood contends that to properly understand religious terror we need to fully comprehend the historical context from which 21st century religious violence has sprung. It is, he argues, an attempt to cope with a world that seems out of control, as seen from a religious perspective that regards modernity as a threat, and globalisation as a direct assault upon ancestral culture and beliefs. In an increasingly secular West, we need better to engage with the religious mindset still prevalent in most of the rest of our world. Only then can we fully realise what is going on and why.