Rating: 
Summary: The War on Terror didn't begin on 9/11
Review:
Emerson traces the history of what went on in the Muslim world and shows the seriousness of the Jihad that was put into motion many years before 9/11.What surprised me was how extensivw this netwokk of evil is around the world and particularly in the US.He spends very little time describing the situtation here in Canada;but I don't feel it is any different than in the US.
The greatest thing we have in North America is our freedom and basic trust of one another and also extend it to people from other countries.These Terrorists take advantage of that goodness in every way;and while it will be a long difficult journey to defeat this scourge;good,as always, will triumph over evil.
Emerson has awaken us to the evil and danger that has spread worldwide and is rampant right in our neighborhoods.We must all be constantly vigilant of theat threat for a long time.
If you have been lulled into believing that the Terrorists just consist of bin Laden and a ragtag bunch hiding in some far off caves;maybe this book will wake you up.
Rating:
Summary: Gives Citizens More Intelligence Than FBI Can Handle
Review:
The FBI--as shown by the recent Congressional testimony of its Director--is still hapless, flailing and clueless when it comes to understanding the specifics of terrorist fund-raising, recruiting, training, and planning based in the USA. Pakistanis are fleeing to the Canadian border as this review is being written, because they know something the FBI is unwilling to compute: the greatest threat is not Al Qaeda, but rather Hamas and militarized Pakistanis, most of whom are legitimate US residents.
Steve Emerson, who first made history in the mid-1990's with his Public Broadcast Service documentary on mullahs in American mosques calling for the murder of Americans deep in the heartland of America, has produced a "citizen's handbook" that is vastly superior to anything the FBI or the White House has been able to offer its taxpayers--and we can buy this for under $12, which compares rather favorably with the $3 billion or so we pay for the FBI, and the $35 billion or so we pay for national intelligence overall. There are really three stories in this book, which I urge every American--and every other citizen of the world--to read. First, and most importantly, the book documents the wide-spread and robust network of Islamic "charities" and other front organizations--the most important based in Texas where they have been ignored--that do fund-raising for terrorism overseas as well as terrorist recruiting and training in the US. The map at the end of the book showing over 50 terrorist nodes in over 30 US cities, is along worth the price of the book. *More than 20% of the addresses and phone numbers in a top terrorist's phone book, when captured, where in the US.* Second, the book provides insights into why the US Government is failing in the war on terrorism. The reasons for failure are balanced between policy failures--a pure unwillingess to confront Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and other governments that nurture terrorists--and intelligence failures, including such mundane things as refusing to demand police record checks on individuals from countries known to be exporting terrorists, and poor relations (and a lack of unilateral clandestine penetrations) with key intelligence services such as the Sudanese, which knew about the "Day of Terror" well in advance but did not tell us...and if it did tell us, our Intelligence Community failed to notice and failed to communicate the warnings. The third story in this book is about sources and methods and mindsets, and the bottom line is this: an open mind can use open sources of information to such advantage, that it makes our closed source and closed mind bureaucracy look pitiful in comparison. The US taxpayer is not getting their money's worth from the US Government with respect to national security expenditures. Finally, although perhaps not intended by the author, his insights are helpful in identifying four specific strategic psychological operations (PsyOp) or "cultural outreach" themes that the US should have been pursuing these many years since the Soviets left Afghanistan: 1) Arab-Afghans isolated and despised; 2) Arab arrogance in relegating all Pakistani's to "untouchable" nonentity status; 3) Oneness of umma fanatically pursued actually attacks and undermines the many varied Muslim cultures, especially non-Arab Muslim cultures; and 4) US has made mistakes--in crime, in morality, in support for repressive regimes--and seeks to change in the true spirit of the Koran. The book's documentation of the crimes against the US of the American Muslim Council, to name just one ostensibly legitimate organization that is revealed in this book (which has been "lawyer-checked" and is bullet-proof against false claims of slander), and other similar "charitable" organizations, constitutes "citizen intelligence" at its best. Every Muslim in America should read this book before donating another dollar to any organization pupporting to be helping Muslims. There is one other cautionary note: the book addresses the specific strategy of bin Laden and other terrorist leaders of deliberately seeking out Muslim youth with US passports who can be used as couriers and suicidal volunteers. The actual examples provided--real people with real terrorist support missions--easily destroy the common misperceptions of terrorists as "foreign." As the author documents, they are within us, they are of us, and what we are doing now to defend ourselves is not likely to work in this context. This is an easy to read, informative book with an excellent map, several tables of Islamic extremist organizations based in America, good notes and a good index. I recommend it without reservation.
Rating: 
Summary: Self-serving book
Review: American Jihad at the surface seems like a very detailed analysis that presents contrarian views about Islam and Muslims.
Unfortunately there is nothing obejective in this book from start to finish.
De-contextualizing any faith no matter which one it is and going at it with a vegence cannot produce a good literary work, let alone something that can benefit the reader.
Creating fear and suspicion is a cruel way to amke money by selling services and books, yet that is what Mr. Emerson is doing. I am a Muslim, I do know a little bit about my faith, I know Muslims, including some of the people that the author has picked on. There are so many fronts that are opened that it needs volumes to discuss each one. It's pretty simple to me. If you want to know about Islam and Muslims, there are plenty of good practicing Muslims, get to know them and judge for your self. Visit a mosque and find out what Muslims are up to.
Do Muslims have issues, absolutely! But a book like this can only breed suspicion and hatred. Don't we have enough of that going around?
Islam and Muslims have much to offer America. It's a time of discovery and really getting to know each other.
There are plenty of objective books, by Non-Muslims as well as Muslims, take a read of them.
Open hearts and open minds.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars should be pinned to the author's chest
Review: American Jihad is two stories. The first, as the title indicates, is an expose of an Islamist fifth column that has infiltrated America's Muslim community and poses a clear and present danger to the nation as a whole. The second story is author Steven Emerson's personal ordeal. After the author documented terrorist penetration of the United States, a death squad prompted Emerson to alter his appearance and to move to another location. Unlike many investigative journalists who have become targets, though, Emerson keeps his role in perspective. The author's humility strengthens his critical analysis of a religious community often too craven to counter extremists as well as a timid federal government that even now refuses to confront this threat squarely. In fact, Emerson's de facto internal exile is Exhibit A in why American Jihad is an important and maddening book. The confluence of America's cherished civil liberties with mindless political correctness has caused people like the author sometimes to be thrown overboard while potential mass murderers are coddled. This book clearly is much larger than death threats against one journalist. It excoriates universities, mosques, charitable organizations, federal agencies, Islamic centers, the media, the foreign policy establishment, and other institutions that have been guilty of, at a minimum, sins of omission. Many groups, some in the heartland, have outright aided and abetted those who want to destroy the United States. Emerson convincingly makes the case that not only did Hamas and Alkhifa flourish in the U.S., in some aspects these and like groups originated in America. From Tucson to Tampa, American Jihad exposes those who both enable terror and those who commit actual crimes. The University of South Florida is tagged as a hotbed of terrorists. An FBI agent speaks to radical Muslims about civil liberties at a thinly veiled terror-fest. Islamists flood the U.S. due to dangerously lax and often flaunted immigration laws. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, central to the first World Trade Center bombing, actually entered the country after he was cleared of Anwar Sadat's murder. Sometimes America's institutions come across as being as delusional as the terrorists. If anything, this book lays to rest any question about whether or not September 11th was a surprise. America wasn't asleep. It was in denial. It still is. Emerson names names. Professor Sami al-Arian formerly of the University of South Florida, for example, is identified as a key figure in Middle Eastern terrorism (as a related aside, American Jihad makes clear that educated people as well as the ignorant and poor are drawn to Islamist movements). Sheikh Abdullah Assam, whose Alkhifa organization was the precursor to al-Qaeda, is revealed as a central supporter of violence who has deep American roots and family ties. Other figures large and small are named. It doesn't take much speculation to surmise this book was heavily and successfully lawyered. One of the weaker aspects of American Jihad is the author' s repetitive observation that the vast majority of Muslims aren't terrorists. Most readers obviously know that, so it seems Emerson is being overly solicitous. If 80 percent of U.S. mosques and Islamic centers are dominated by Islamists as one source asserts, not only are Emerson's apologies unnecessary, America's Muslim community needs to do a lot of serious soul-searching. How that 80 percent figure was derived, in fairness, is never explained. Further, some of the bravest figures in this book are the few American Muslims and clerics who confront the Islamists. Emerson is no bigot. He is, simply, painfully honest. The charts and appendices at the book's end prove quite useful. Emerson richly documents that many mainstream Muslim organizations and charities have been at the forefront of extremism, and he doesn't flinch from using graphics, flow charts and surreptitiously obtained tapes to prove his point. As a result--and on a personal note--I was shocked to find an al-Qaeda cell was detected in my city. Few journalists actually shape the national dialogue. Steven Emerson did to a degree. Americans may be a bit safer as a result. The five stars awarded this book should be pinned to the author's chest.
Rating: 
Summary: An accurate portrayal
Review: An objective and accurate portrayal of radical Islam in America. Once one reads this book, it becomes obvious that many in the media and academic circles are living in a whitewashed world of denial. Radical Islam is a very real threat. And it's here and now. To learn about what goes on at an Islamic convention in a Texas Hilton Hotel and to learn where the monies go from "mainstream" Islamic charities, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Roots of Jihad tracked
Review: Book exposes the activities of Jihadis in the US, exploiting the freedom of speech enshrined in the US constitution. It is surprising to learn that the national security establishment was completely unaware of things to come. Call for Jihad against Israel and the West, from within the US soil, in the 1980's went unnoticed, given the state department's focus on Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. It is equally surprising to note that similar calls in the 1990's (until 1993 WTC bombing) went unnoticed as well. Oil power is the key to strategic policies in the Gulf. US was a blind spectator to Saudi's role in the propogation of militant Islam (Wahhabism) throughout the world. Even if this book had been written 15 years back, WTC bombing in 1993 could not have been prevented. The US intelligentia, under the hang-over of cold-war and oil diplomacy, simply did not see these coming. Instead it relied on false optimism to carry forward their relationship with the muslim world. This explains stringent opposition to the author's documentary in Nov 1994 (Jihad in America). Al-Qaeda's roots lay in Pakistan. Even today, US considers Pakistan as its ally in the war against terrorism. US is a blind spectator to what is going on in Pakistan today. Unless it realizes its mistakes, threat of terrorism will not wane away. Stephen Emerson's book is a pointer in this regard.
Rating:
Summary: This is real, this is now, this is happening in America
Review: Disturbing - nothing else can describe the sensation of a situation in which Muslim terrorist agitators scream for American blood and carnage, not on the streets of Karachi or in a ramshackle West Bank mosque, but down the street in your city's convention center. Welcome, all, to American Jihad. Emerson's journalistic journey into this world is clearly described and explained in this book, and it is not a pretty one. I do have to say that in the middle chapters it does get a bit repetitive, with frequent descriptions of so-and-so travelled to such-and-such city to meet with this group or the other, but this slight detraction from entertainment value does not diminish the factual value of this work. Emerson has travelled throughout the United States and also to other countries, including Pakistan, to meet with some of these groups. Apparently a good many of these people don't mind stating clearly and for the record that they are Islamic militants, although many of the interviewed in Pakistan were refering to Afghan conflicts. Even so, the links to America are well established, showing some structure of the worldwide Jihadist movement. The emphasis is on fund raising and networking in the United States, particularly involving well known Islamic "charities" and other organizations, but some of the examples can be quite chilling. The clearest example would be the twenty videotapes Emerson found and purchased in an Arabic grocery store in the United States with terrorist training instruction, complete with live demonstrations of interogation by torture, with murder as a follow up. One thing you will not find here is much discussion about Islam. This is a true crime book, and replacing Arabic names with those of some other group could easily produce a generic story about tracking militia movements, the mafia, drug dealers, or whatever. Emerson actually devotes more space, about twenty pages, to praise the efforts of Muslim born opponents of this Islam militarism than he does to discussing Islam itself. American Jihad is best viewed as an urgent wake-up call to those Americans who care at all about our continued well being. In this, it is a success.
Rating:
Summary: An insightful book
Review: Emerson depicts the struggles that we now face in America accurately and with precision. For those who know of what he writes about, this is a well written book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and thought-provoking
Review: Emerson's book is thorough and well-researched. Very readable. It was hard not to be angry all over again about the events of 9-11 after reading this book. The only short-coming is that it lacks a predictive section discussing possible future scenario's about the infiltration of terrorist organizations into U.S. society. I would also have liked more information included about the steps the U.S. government is currently undertaking to limit these activities. All in all, however, fascinating reading.
Rating:
Summary: Revealing facts the left & jihadists don't want you to know
Review: Finally America is waking up to a world filled with the hatred she thought she had vanquished at the end of the cold war. Islamism and its jihadist hordes, represented in the Western World by leftists and liberals, are all embarking on the conquest of YOU and YOUR freedoms. Islam as the self-proclaimed "religion of peace" wants you to bow down and be submissive - "Muhammed's believe it - or else..."
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