If anyone was going to write a book exploring the development of the Islamic worlds volatile relationship with the West, then Malise Ruthven, author of numerous books on fundamentalism and religion in general and the Arab peoples and Islam in particular, was a good candidate. It is a book that was written in the “heat of the moment” as the author himself states, following the attacks on the Twin Towers and although the book is even subtitled, the Islamic Attack on America, it is actually about so much more that the relation ship between the two. The author is honest enough to venture the fact that he sees the book as offering very little that hasn’t been written before. .  Read the complete review