A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online—and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social mediaIn an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking e...

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fundamentalist church in Florida, announced plans to burn two hundred Qur'ans on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Though he ended up canceling the stunt in the face of widespread public backlash, his threat sparked violent protests across the Muslim world that left at least twenty people dead. In Terrified, Christopher Bail demonstrates how the beliefs of fanatics like Jones are inspired by a rapidly expanding network of...

A revealing look at how user behavior is powering deep social divisions online ? and how we might yet defeat political tribalism on social mediaIn an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other . We use social media as a mirror to decipher our place in society but, as Chris Bail explains, it functions more like a prism that distorts our identities, empowers status-seeking extremists, and...

An ISIS terrorist planned to kill more than 500 people. He would have succeeded except for three American friends who refused to give in to fear.On August 21, 2015, Ayoub El-Khazzani boarded train #9364 in Brussels, bound for Paris. There could be no doubt about his mission: he had an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter, and enough ammunition to obliterate every passenger on board. Slipping into the bathroom in secret, he armed his weapons. Another major ISIS attack was ...

The Islamic State movement (ISIS/ISIL/IS) burst onto the world stage in 2014. From its heartland in Syria, where it arose from the chaos of the Syrian Revolt, the organisation has expanded in ideology and membership and now poses a significant threat to the region, if not to the wider world. Moubayed, a Beirut-based journalist who has been analysing Syria and the region for 20 years, has unrivalled access to the movement and its participants. His book is the first inside account of an orga...

Since early 2007 a new breed of combatants has appeared on the streets of Mogadishu and other towns in Somalia: the 'Shabaab', or youth, the only self-proclaimed branch of al-Qaeda to have gained acceptance (and praise) from Ayman al-Zawahiri and 'AQ centre' in Afghanistan. Itself an offshoot of the Islamic Courts Union, which split in 2006, Shabaab has imposed Sharia law and is also heavily influenced by local clan structures within Somalia itself. It remains an infamous and widely discus...

Yemen, tucked into the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has often escaped regional and international attention. And yet its history illuminates some of the most important issues at play in the modern Middle East: from Cold War rivalries to the growth of Islamic extremism in the 1990s, and from the rise of 'Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula' (AQAP) in the post-9/11 period to Obama-era drone strikes. Uzi Rabi looks at this country and its economic and political history through ...

For those who believe America is worth defending, The Control Factor explores the psychological maneuvers, fantasies, and entanglements we engage in to avoid clearly seeing the Islamic threat that confronts us. The prerequisite for developing necessary strategies to ensure our survival is taking responsibility for our perceptions and actions.

Islam is one of the world's great monotheistic religions. Islamic culture, spanning 1,500 years, has produced some of the finest achievements of humanity. Yet the religion followed by a fifth of humankind is too often seen in the West in terms of fundamentalism, bigotry and violence- a perception that couldn't be more wrong.Introducing Islam recounts the history of Islam from the birth of Prophet Muhammad in the 6th century to its status as a global cultur...

This revealing biography examines the life of al-Qaeda’s founder from birth into a Saudi dynasty to his years in hiding after 9/11.As the mastermind behind the September 11th terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden is one of the most-recognized faces of terror. Even years after his death in 2011, he remains a vivid symbol of outrage and tragedy in the American imagination. Yet bin Laden always presented himself to the world as a paragon of ascetic virtue. But journalist...

Beginning with an examination of medieval Islamic fundamentalist movements such as Kharjism, Ibadism, Hanbalism, and Wahhabism, Sayed Khatab looks at the similarities and differences between them and present organizations such as al-Qa*'ida. It may be surprising that many of the radical narratives embraced by modern groups have not emerged recently. Identifying these roots can lead to a better understanding of al-Qa'ida's theological and intellectual narratives, and how they effectivel...

Hamed El-Said investigates Counter-de-Rad programmes in Muslim majority and Muslim minority states. This multifaceted book provides a new approach to evaluate Counter-de-Rad Programmes and develops a holistic framework which will allow policy-makers and practitioners to design and effectively implement and assess such programmes in the future.