God's Terrorists

A compelling—and timely—history of the Wahhabi, a fundamentalist Islamic sect whose teachings today influence al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

What are the roots of today's militant fundamentalism in the Muslim world? In this insightful and wide-ranging history, Charles Allen finds an answer in an eighteenth-century reform movement of Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers—the Wahhabi—who sought the restoration of Islamic purity and declared violent jihad on all who opposed them. The Wahhabi teaching spread rapidly—first throughout the Arabian Peninsula, then to the Indian subcontinent, where a more militant expression of Wahhabism flourished. The ranks of today's Taliban and al-Qaeda are filled with young men trained in Wahhabi theology. God's Terrorists sheds much-needed light on the origins of modern terrorism and shows how this dangerous ideology lives on today.

"With the Taliban resurgent in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, those who wish to understand Islamic militancy will find this book a valuable complement to works . . . on contemporary Central Asia." —The Dallas Morning News

"This long, bloody, and commandingly told story does what we long for history to do: tells a tale of long ago that throws new, if uncomfortable, light on our world." —Sunday Times (London)

"A story of intransigence, hatred of modernity, millennial dreams, bloody massacres and invariably disappointed hopes." —The Independent

"Of use to those seeking to understand the origins and growth of Islamic extremism." —Kirkus Reviews

"Allen argues persuasively that violent Islamic extremism isn't as new as we might think." —Publishers Weekly