How to win a cosmic war - Reza Aslan

*Why do they hate us?An entire cottage industry has arisen to answer this question. But what no one has really figured out is, who exactly are they? Is it al-Qaeda? Islamic nationalists? The whole Muslim world?

*HOW TO WIN A COSMIC WAR lays out, for the first time,a comprehensive definition of the movement behind and surrounding al-Qaedaand the like, a global ideology properly termed Jihadism.

*Contrasting twenty-first-century religious extremism across Christianity, Judaism and Islam with itshistorical antecedents, Aslan demonstrates that while modern Jihadis may have legitimate social grievances - the suffering of the Palestinians, American support for Arab dictators, the presence of foreign troops in Muslim lands, to name a few - they have no real goals or actual agenda.

*So, what do the Jihadists want? Aslan's answer is:Nothing. The Jihadists have no earthly agenda; they are fighting a metaphysical conflict, a theological war. And ever since 9/11, we have unfortunately been fighting the same cosmic war, the war they want: the so-called 'War on Terror'.

*How do we win a Cosmic War? By refusing to fight in one.And in this stunning new work, Aslan reveals surprising conclusions about how we can deal with this predicament.