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Militant Islam Reaches America
One of the most far-reaching examinations of militant Islam written to date. Long before September 11, 2001, Daniel Pipes publicly warned Americans that militant Islam had declared war on America―yet sadly, Americans failed to take heed. The publication of Militant Islam Reaches America finally brought Pipes the attention he deserves. Dividing his work into two parts, Pipes first defines militant Islam, stressing the large and crucial difference between Islam, the faith, and the ideology of militant Islam. He then discusses the relatively new subject of Islam in the United States, and how it has developed rapidly in the last decade. In Militant Islam Reaches America, the product of thirty years of extensive research, Pipes provides one of the most incisive examinations of the growing radical Islamic movement ever written.
The paperback edition includes a new essay, "Jihad and the Professors."
The paperback edition includes a new essay, "Jihad and the Professors."
348 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 2002
About the author
Daniel Pipes
41 books29 followersDaniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American historian, writer, and political commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its Middle East Quarterly journal. His writing focuses on the American foreign policy and the Middle East. He is also an Expert at Wikistrat.
After graduating with a PhD from Harvard and studying abroad, Pipes taught at a number of universities. He then served as director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, before founding the Middle East Forum. His 2003 nomination by U.S. President George W. Bush to the board of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace was protested by Islamists, Arab-American groups, and Democratic leaders, who cited his oft-stated belief that victory is the most effective way to terminate conflict. The Bush administration sidestepped the opposition with a recess appointment.
Pipes has written a dozen books, and served as an adviser to Rudolph Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. He was in 2008-11 the Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
(Wikipedia)
After graduating with a PhD from Harvard and studying abroad, Pipes taught at a number of universities. He then served as director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, before founding the Middle East Forum. His 2003 nomination by U.S. President George W. Bush to the board of directors of the U.S. Institute of Peace was protested by Islamists, Arab-American groups, and Democratic leaders, who cited his oft-stated belief that victory is the most effective way to terminate conflict. The Bush administration sidestepped the opposition with a recess appointment.
Pipes has written a dozen books, and served as an adviser to Rudolph Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. He was in 2008-11 the Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
(Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 13, 2018
Mostly Islamophobic musings of a dissatisfied human.
I will occasionally read books that I disagree with for the sake of learning how those I disagree construct their arguments. Weakly, is the answer in this case.
I will occasionally read books that I disagree with for the sake of learning how those I disagree construct their arguments. Weakly, is the answer in this case.
March 2, 2021
Where do I even start with this book...there is so much to discuss and unpack, but for the sake of a review I will point at one argument in this book which is fundamentally contradictory and extremely dangerous in its thinking.
p.135-140: The core of this argument is, as I understand it, that 10 to 15 percent of all Muslims are Militant Islamists, of whom all are potential killers. It is unfortunate, but we must continue profiling Muslims to make sure that we catch these Militant Islamists, but it is also difficult, because there are Militant Islamist "sleepers" who appear to be normal people, but can conduct jihadist violence suddenly, to the surprise of security forces. Therefore, all Muslims are suspect. We should work with Muslim communities in the West to monitor and minimize militant Islamism. We should not discriminate against Muslims, and should not treat Islam as the problem, but militant Islamism.
Does Pipes not understand how contradictory and dangerous this line of thinking is? He may be thinking in a purely rational and security-oriented way, but his statements are very easily absorbed and popularized by Islamophobes and far-right extremists in the West who absolutely do not carry the same nuanced thinking that Pipes does. He does not seem to understand that treating every Muslim as a potential killer contradicts his earlier calls for "innocent until proven guilty" for American Muslims. It's a shame, because this book has some very real advice and caution to Western community and public leaders about how to deal with Islamic extremism. However, every time I think Pipes is getting somewhere, he veers off into dangerous statements about Muslims and Islam that reinforce the self-victimization of militant Islamists and alienate moderate Muslims (who are the majority, as he states in the book).
Here we are in the year 2020, and what happened to the threat of militant Islam in the West that Pipes was warning us all about? We experienced the rise and fall of ISIS within the decade, along with the many "lone-wolf" ISIS-sympathetic acts of terrorism conducted in Europe and the US, but most of all, in the Middle East, against moderate Muslims (again, Pipes confirms this notion in his book, that Muslims are the first victims of Islamic terrorism). However, we are still here, and there is no threat of Islam taking over our way of life. Our Arab allies in the Middle East are slowly coming around to making peace with Israel. I am veering off-topic now, but my final review of this book is this: Read it, but with a bucket of salt, and fact check every claim you read. Under it all, Pipes is making some real foreign policy suggestions that are based in strategic thinking, whether or not you agree with them. But do not go to Pipes to understand Islam or terrorism within Islam, because you get such claims that all Muslims are potential terrorists. Instead I would recommend reading both "Islam: A Short History" by Karen Armstrong and "The Al-Qaeda Reader" by Raymond Ibrahim. These are both flawed books too, but you will get a much less antagonistic and fear-mongering account, and more primary sources.
p.135-140: The core of this argument is, as I understand it, that 10 to 15 percent of all Muslims are Militant Islamists, of whom all are potential killers. It is unfortunate, but we must continue profiling Muslims to make sure that we catch these Militant Islamists, but it is also difficult, because there are Militant Islamist "sleepers" who appear to be normal people, but can conduct jihadist violence suddenly, to the surprise of security forces. Therefore, all Muslims are suspect. We should work with Muslim communities in the West to monitor and minimize militant Islamism. We should not discriminate against Muslims, and should not treat Islam as the problem, but militant Islamism.
Does Pipes not understand how contradictory and dangerous this line of thinking is? He may be thinking in a purely rational and security-oriented way, but his statements are very easily absorbed and popularized by Islamophobes and far-right extremists in the West who absolutely do not carry the same nuanced thinking that Pipes does. He does not seem to understand that treating every Muslim as a potential killer contradicts his earlier calls for "innocent until proven guilty" for American Muslims. It's a shame, because this book has some very real advice and caution to Western community and public leaders about how to deal with Islamic extremism. However, every time I think Pipes is getting somewhere, he veers off into dangerous statements about Muslims and Islam that reinforce the self-victimization of militant Islamists and alienate moderate Muslims (who are the majority, as he states in the book).
Here we are in the year 2020, and what happened to the threat of militant Islam in the West that Pipes was warning us all about? We experienced the rise and fall of ISIS within the decade, along with the many "lone-wolf" ISIS-sympathetic acts of terrorism conducted in Europe and the US, but most of all, in the Middle East, against moderate Muslims (again, Pipes confirms this notion in his book, that Muslims are the first victims of Islamic terrorism). However, we are still here, and there is no threat of Islam taking over our way of life. Our Arab allies in the Middle East are slowly coming around to making peace with Israel. I am veering off-topic now, but my final review of this book is this: Read it, but with a bucket of salt, and fact check every claim you read. Under it all, Pipes is making some real foreign policy suggestions that are based in strategic thinking, whether or not you agree with them. But do not go to Pipes to understand Islam or terrorism within Islam, because you get such claims that all Muslims are potential terrorists. Instead I would recommend reading both "Islam: A Short History" by Karen Armstrong and "The Al-Qaeda Reader" by Raymond Ibrahim. These are both flawed books too, but you will get a much less antagonistic and fear-mongering account, and more primary sources.
March 6, 2007
Pipes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Harvard historian Richard Pipes and his wife Irene (née Roth). Both Pipes' parents were from assimilated Polish Jewish families that escaped from Poland in 1939. The couple met in the United States in 1944, and married two years later. Daniel was their first child.
Pipes attended the Harvard pre-school, then received a private school education, partly abroad. He enrolled in Harvard University in the fall of 1968; for his first two years he studied mathematics, but has stated: "I wasn't smart enough. So I chose to become a historian." He credits visits to the Sahara Desert in 1968 and the Sinai Desert in 1969 for piquing his interest in Arabic, and for the following two years he studied the Middle East. Pipes obtained a B.A. in history in 1971; his senior thesis was titled A Medieval Islamic Debate: The World Created in Eternity, a study of Al-Ghazali, one of the greatest jurists, theologians and mystical thinkers in the Islamic tradition.
He returned to Harvard in 1973 and obtained a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history in 1978. His Ph.D. dissertation eventually became his first book, Slave Soldiers and Islam, in 1981. He studied abroad for six years, three of which were spent in Egypt, where he wrote a book on colloquial Egyptian Arabic which was published in 1983. He taught world history at the University of Chicago from 1972 to 1982, history at Harvard from 1983 to 1984, and policy strategy at the Naval War College from 1984 to 1986.
Pipes has served in various capacities at the Departments of State and Defense, and has testified to the United States Congress. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from universities in Switzerland and the United States. He speaks French and English and can read Arabic and German.
He has been married twice, and has three daughters.
As of January 2007, Pipes held the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University teaching a course titled "International Relations: Islam and Politics." [2]
Pipes attended the Harvard pre-school, then received a private school education, partly abroad. He enrolled in Harvard University in the fall of 1968; for his first two years he studied mathematics, but has stated: "I wasn't smart enough. So I chose to become a historian." He credits visits to the Sahara Desert in 1968 and the Sinai Desert in 1969 for piquing his interest in Arabic, and for the following two years he studied the Middle East. Pipes obtained a B.A. in history in 1971; his senior thesis was titled A Medieval Islamic Debate: The World Created in Eternity, a study of Al-Ghazali, one of the greatest jurists, theologians and mystical thinkers in the Islamic tradition.
He returned to Harvard in 1973 and obtained a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history in 1978. His Ph.D. dissertation eventually became his first book, Slave Soldiers and Islam, in 1981. He studied abroad for six years, three of which were spent in Egypt, where he wrote a book on colloquial Egyptian Arabic which was published in 1983. He taught world history at the University of Chicago from 1972 to 1982, history at Harvard from 1983 to 1984, and policy strategy at the Naval War College from 1984 to 1986.
Pipes has served in various capacities at the Departments of State and Defense, and has testified to the United States Congress. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from universities in Switzerland and the United States. He speaks French and English and can read Arabic and German.
He has been married twice, and has three daughters.
As of January 2007, Pipes held the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University teaching a course titled "International Relations: Islam and Politics." [2]
January 16, 2009
Quite good.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews