A sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West, shedding a revealing light on current hostilities The West and Islam--the sword and the scimitar--have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Byzantine emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad's order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam, unleashing a centuries-long jihad on Christendom. Sword and Scimitar chronicles the significant...

Provides an in-depth look at the modern, radical Islamic groups, and the ideas and beliefs that inspire them, along with the challenges they pose for governments in the Middle East and the West. From the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1940s to Islamic organizations today, get an insightful perspectives of Islam from Western and Middle Eastern journalists, U.S. intelligence experts on the frontlines of the fight against al Qaeda, and friends and contemporaries...

Talal Derki returned to his Syrian homeland where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses primarily on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic caliphate. Osama and his brother Ayman both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems content to follow the...

"Yemen is the dark horse of the Middle East. Every so often it enters the headlines for one alarming reason or another -- links with al-Qaeda, kidnapped Westerners, explosive population growth -- then sinks into obscurity again. But, as Victoria Clark argues in this riveting book, we ignore Yemen at our peril. The poorest state in the Arab world, it is still dominated by its tribal makeup and has become a perfect breeding ground for insurgent and...

"Two of America's leading experts on violent extremism and terrorism explain the genesis, evolution, and implications of today's most barbaric jihadist army, Islamic State -- and how we can fight it"-- Though terrorist groups are a fixture of contemporary politics and warfare, the world has never witnessed the degree of sheer brutality demonstrated by the group known as ISIS -- the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Its sadistic disregard for...