The Foreign Service Journal, October 2005

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 63 Holy Terror Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill Jessica Stern, Harper Perennial, 2004, $15.95, paperback, 400 pages. R EVIEWED BY E DWARD M ARKS There is a plethora of “terrorism” books available these days, explaining how to define the phenomenon, how to explain it, how to fight it. They vary in quality and insight, of course, but two years after its original publication, Jessica Stern’s Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill is still one of the better ones. Her objec- tive, quite simply, was to obtain by direct interview with religious terror- ists and their supporters, an under- standing of “why, when they read reli- gious texts, these terrorists find justifi- cation for killing innocents, where oth- ers find inspiration for charity.” Professor Stern makes clear that the desire for political power, land and money, and wounded masculinity, inter alia, also play motivating roles for even the most religiously character- ized movements and individuals. But it is the religiously motivated terrorists (not just Muslims or Arabs, either) who most fascinate and apparently most threaten us today, so Professor Stern’s focus on them is both under- standable and welcome. Stern’s technique is quite simple. Drawing on her extensive contacts as a well-known academic on the subject, she interviewed extremist members of three religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Some were in jail at the time, but most were out in society. She describes the problems inherent in this approach, most notably: Why should they wish to speak with any outsider, particularly an American, Jewish, female professor from Har- vard? But speak they did, and Professor Stern’s description of her effort to demonstrate empathy (as dis- tinct from sympathy) is successful. The conversations, which she relates in detail, are fascinating and insightful. The conclusions she draws from them are sobering if not alto- gether new. For example, her re- search clearly confirms the findings of previous studies, such as the American Academy of Science’s 2003 report (“Strong Religion”), that across the various religions, the theological as well as psychological motivations and justifications are remarkably similar. With respect to the theological component of terrorist motivation, Stern sees similar grievances among varied religious terrorist groups and organizations. The Islamic Jihad orga- nization in Pakistan and Christian fun- damentalist bombers in Oklahoma have much in common. Essentially, they are unhappy with the new world order, seeing themselves “as under attack by the global threat of post- Enlightenment Western values such as secular humanism. ... The point of religious terrorism is to purify the world of these corrupting influences.” There is nothing new here in one sense, but her discussion of how this attitude is fostered by self-proclaimed leaders and by organizational partici- pation is thoughtful and important. She notes how the perspective of indi- viduals, often inchoate and unformed, is molded and channeled by organiza- tions. Her discussion of leaders and the key role they play is equally enlightening. Few terrorists wake up on a given morning and decide to play the martyr; rather, moral fervor must be recognized, cultivated and directed — and requires organizational support for action. This is all sobering stuff, providing insight not only into contemporary ter- rorism but also into much contempo- rary politics. What motivates some to become terrorists motivates others to political activity just short of terrorism but still important. In one sense, reli- gious terrorism is merely the froth on the wave of political unrest rampaging throughout the Middle East and sig- B OOKS With respect to the theological component of terrorist motivation, Stern sees similar grievances among varied religious terrorist groups and organizations. u