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Since the 9/11 attacks, scholars have struggled to help Westerners understand what motivates the jihadi movement. Noting that the best way to understand jihadists is to ignore statements they release to the West in favor of examining what they say to each other, Jim Lacey provides a definitive collection of writings that intellectually underpins the movement. Rather than guessing about terrorist motivations from a Western perspective, readers are offered essays including those by the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna, and a leading early member, Sayed Qutb that define the movement through the eyes of the terrorists themselves. As jihadist cadres begin to rebuild, Lacey notes that they are turning once again to their original thinkers to justify their actions. This project is sponsored by the United States Joint Forces Command.
Jim Lacey is the author of Takedown: The 3rd Infantry Division's Twenty-One Day Assault on Baghdad (978-159114-458-8), $29.95, Hardcover, Naval Institute Press, 2007.
Praise for The Canons of Jihad
“This book should be required reading for every citizen of the United States and the European Union. Jim Lacey has done us all an incredibly valuable service by collecting this illuminating volume of writings. It is not a collection of writing about jihadists; it is a collection of writings by jihadists. As such, it provides an enlightening and, in many cases, alarming insight into the goals, the motives, and the very minds of jihadists. It is very much like reading their personal mail communicating with each other. Canons of Jihad reveals what jihadists are saying to each other, about each other, and about themselves. Every member of any US administration, as well as every member of Congress, should take the time to read this book and reflect upon its implications. That bold statement is very much like recommending, in 1936, that leaders around the world take the time to read Mein Kampf.
It is still one of the best, most readable insights into the mind of the jihadist I have read. Get a copy. Read it. Consider it in light of the recent unrest in the Middle East. Believe it.”
— Air Force Research Institute
