Book Review | The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam's War Against America

CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence

Studies in Intelligence, 2004

The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam's War Against America

Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon. New York: Random House, 2002. 490 pages, endnotes, glossary, index.

Reviewed by Hayden B. Peake, curator of the CIA's Historical Intelligence Collection

The authors served on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration as specialists in counterterrorism. They began the book in 1999 to raise American awareness about a new breed of terrorist led by Usama Bin Laden and his al-Qa`ida organization and motivated by a radical form of Islam that justified killing infidels on a mass scale. After 9/11 the authors added the objective of determining what went wrong and why warnings signs had gone unheeded.

The book has three parts. Parts Two and Three are concerned with the reaction in the White House and the national security elements to the first World Trade Center bombing, the escalating terrorist acts against America elsewhere in the world, the actions taken or not taken to combat the growing influence of Bin Laden, and the root causes of the problem and role of religions. Part Two has a strong political element and ends with comments on how the incoming Bush administration handled the terrorist threat before 9/11. Then, NSC staff member Richard A. Clarke, author of the recent book Against All Enemies, plays a significant role. Part Three makes some recommendations for the future and focuses at some length on the religious aspects—not just Islamic—of the terrorist threat and what that means in what they see as a "never ending war." (p. 423)

For many, Part One of The Sacred Age of Terror will be of greatest value. After a brief summary of the most significant terrorist acts against America in the 1990s, the authors examine the history of Islam that has led to the present situation. They answer the question, to the extent possible, why do Bin Laden Islamists kill on a massive scale to achieve their goals? Here the authors describe the history of Bin Laden's movement with its medieval origins and links to the Muslim Brotherhood and its credo (p. 57). They also explain the reasons for the various versions of Islam, the different forms of jihad, and the rationale for a Islamic world based—however long it takes—as required in the Koran.

By combining history with insights based on current real world experience, the authors have provided a valuable, well-documented perspective on a topic that demands attention.