Warrant for Terror - (Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society) by Shmuel Bar (Paperback)

About the Book

Warrant for Terror examines fatwas, which are legal opinions declaring whether a given act under Islam is obligatory, permitted, or forbidden and which serve as a major instrument by which religious leaders impel believers to engage in acts of jihad.

Book Synopsis

Warrant for Terror examines fatwas, which are legal opinions declaring whether a given act under Islam is obligatory, permitted, or forbidden and which serve as a major instrument by which religious leaders impel believers to engage in acts of jihad.

Review Quotes

If you are sick of instant experts offering sound-bite style insight into the phenomenon of Radical Islam, then Warrant for Terror is the right medicine for you. Through an exhaustive yet refreshingly readable analysis of fatwas-Muslim religious injunctions-Shmuel Bar takes us deep into the minds of both those who issue calls for jihad and those who heed them. As a tool to understand the logic, the rationale, and the motivation of the enemy in the war on terror, this book is sure to be assigned in counter-terror training courses around the world. Thankfully, the rest of us can read it, too.

Shmuel Bar has written one of the most important and compelling books in recent years. If you want to understand Islamic terrorism and jihad, this is the book to read. He has written an absolutely brilliant page-turning analysis of the dynamics underlying radical Jihad today-and for policymakers, analysts and the public, Warrant for Terror will provide you insights that few other books even dare try. This is one of the best books I have ever read on the dynamics of jihad and fatwas. Read it to be educated and to truly understand. Ignore it at your peril. Dr. Bar has performed a wonderful public service by compiling and analyzing the fatwas for us. This book is a bench mark in the literature on Jihad.

Warrant for Terror offers many insights.

Bar has crafted an important book. This short volume is a must-read for anyone disturbed by the government and media's failure to truly elucidate the underpinnings of the terrorism threat that's here to stay.

Drawing on Arabic sources not typically available to English readers, Shmuel Bar outlines the way that fatwas from Muslim religious authorities have in recent years laid a basis for jihadism and terror. Warrant for Terror is critical reading to understand the nature of the challenge posed by radical Islamism today.

It is invaluable for understanding the reasons for radical Islamism in the 21st century. Bar drives home the point that only Muslims can turn the tide....Warrant for Terror is a compelling book.

Non-Muslims rarely pay attention to the religious struggle within Islam. They must, urgently. Radical clerics, wielding the deadly accusation of apostacy, have silenced most mainstream Muslim clerics and regimes in the Muslim world on the issues of jihad and terrorism. We are at serious risk of having hundreds of millions of religiously-driven enemies and deferential followers.

Shmuel Bar offers a much needed account of the religious logic that inspires and justifies Islamic radicalism and its terrorist manifestations. His sections on the extremists legal justifications for attacking Americans, fellow Muslims, and particularly Israel are enlightening and useful for anyone who has wondered how religious thinking can be used to support terrorism.

Shmuel Bar offers a much-needed account of the religious logic that inspires and justifies Islamic radicalism and its terrorist manifestations...His conclusion, that the war of ideas within the Muslim world is primarily a religious war, should be taken seriously.

Since the author of this hard-hitting book is Israeli, some may dismiss it out of hand, as politically motivated. However, the depth of research, drawn from Arabic sources, should cause every reader to pay attention. It is invaluable for understanding the reasons for radical Islamism in the 21st century.

This is an important book, its limpid prose matching the authority Bar brings to a subject about which we cannot afford to be ignorant.

About the Author

Shmuel Bar is a senior research fellow dealing with Middle Eastern and Islamic affairs at the Institute of Policy and Strategy in Herzliya, Israel. Bar retired (in 2003) after 30 years of service in the Israeli civil service (as an intelligence officer in the IDF and in the Office of the Prime Minister) in senior staff and operational positions, including diplomatic posting in Europe. Bar holds a Ph.D. in History of the Middle East from Tel-Aviv University and has published numerous books and papers on Middle Eastern affairs, terrorism, and radical Islam.