- Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Volume 6, New York, 1985, p.582. In
1985 journalist Robin Wright published (in New York and London) the
book Sacred Rage: the Wrath of Militant Islam, which says:
the Prophet preached holy war in his seventh-century campaigns to
spread the faith and increase the territory under Muslim control. During
his lifetime, he led the first Muslims to victories throughout the Arabian
peninsula. Within one hundred years, Islamic crusaders had [...] the
largest and fastest military victory purely in the name of religion in the
history of the world. [...] In strict interpretation, jihad is no longer
possible, except perhaps against Israel... (p.55)
As the subsequent decades and the thousands and thousands of jihadi
attacks have shown, this was assessment of Muslim-terrorism-as-jihad
against Israel in the 1970s and 1980s appears callous and naive. The
cover of Wrightʼs book contains rave reviews from The New York Times,
NBC News, The Rand Corporation, West Point, The Christian Science
Monitor, and staff at The University of Virginia. ↵
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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