God of Battles

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Look at How Bloodthirsty Religions Can Be
Review: All the excuse for shedding (other people's blood) in the name of their god... Holy war is an excuse for killing over religious differences. Such is the sentimentalism that lead to crusades or jihad. Unfortunate that such is the predicament today. In a way, it does show that religion can be used to support terrorist activities (as excuse or plain unreasonably other people of attacking their religion).

Religions have resulted in more people killing people than wild animals killing people. Think about it!

Rating:
Summary: Recent events have made some of the themes sadly outdated
Review: Had current events not argued so strongly against Peter Partner's central themes in "God of Battles", I would have agreed that it is an excellent book. Its exploration of the terror and damage wrought by Islam, Christendom, and Judaism in Europe and the Middle East is excellent, and altogether frightening. As explained by Partner, fundamentalism and mercilessness remain much of the problem today. One of Partner's themes is that Western perceptions of the Arab world are simplistic and reactionary; that not all Muslims follow the savage fundamental rhetoric that we commonly associate with "terrorism." Unfortunately, we now know that while it is technically true that the Islamic world is led by even-handed rulers, in actuality the inmates are in charge of the asylum. Arab rulers kow-tow to fundamentalist interests within their own peoples with terrifying regularity, or are simply powerless to prevent its growth. At the same time, Western politics concerning the Middle-East have also grow less tolerent. Indeed the overthrowing of the Taliban rule in Afganistan has redistributed the balance of power in the region. Western and Middle-Eastern relations have grow infinitely more complex since the 1997 publication date of "God of Battles." Perhaps a newer edition is in order - one that takes into account the renewed interest in jihad by fundamentalist Muslims, and the unwillingness or inability to stop it by the moderates.