Edition |
First U.S. edition. |
Description |
323 pages ; 24 cm |
Note |
Includes index. |
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"First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Doubleday" -- T.p. verso. |
Contents |
Introduction: Al-Qaeda goes to Hollywood -- Jaffa Road: the transmitter of hopes and fears -- The Mickey Mouse death club: the dirt lot of the Philistines -- Fallen idols, risen angels: Into Iraq -- Cut adrift: freedom's city -- Bring 'em on: the birth of an insurgency -- Translator wars: learning to pity the US proconsul -- In Babylon's halls: tourism under fire -- Ancient feuds: a festival of blood in Karbala -- City of broken mosques: how the spiders of Allah defeated the US Marine Corps -- Two in the heart, one in the mind: battlefields of the soul -- Death in the Venice of the East: three summers in Basra -- Inside the spider's web: the fall of Fallujah -- Pandora's sandbox: bombs, beheadings and bullshit -- Creatures of the id: why we fight -- Epilogue: Canaanite karma. |
Summary |
In his fascinating, terrifying and often very funny book, James Hider takes his doubts about religious beliefs straight into the dark heart of the world's holy wars--from Israel to Gaza to Iraq--the birthplace that spawned so many faiths--and then back to Jerusalem. From hardcore Zionist settlers still fighting ancient Biblical battles in the hills of the West Bank to Shiite death squads roaming the lawless streets of Iraq in the aftermath of Saddam; whether it's the misappropriation and martyrdom of Mickey Mouse by Gaza's Islamists, or a US president acting on God's orders, Hider sees the hallucinatory effect of what he calls the 'crack cocaine of fanatical fundamentalism' all around him. |
Subject |
Middle East -- Politics and government -- 1979-
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Middle East -- Religion.
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Middle East -- Description and travel.
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Hider, James -- Travel -- Middle East.
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Religion and politics -- Middle East.
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Religious fundamentalism -- Middle East.
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Terrorism -- Middle East.
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Terrorism -- Religious aspects.
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Crime -- Middle East.
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Crime -- Religious aspects.
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ISBN |
9780312565855 |
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0312565852 |
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