The book received a wide variety of reviews . Salon.com ran a review that described the work as " an important entry in the debate over the meaning of 9/11 and after " . Author Sam Harris praised the work in Harris ' own book '' The End of Faith '' , which also discussed jihadist terrorism . '' Washington Monthly '' journalist Joshua Micah Marshall particularly remarked that " Berman 's book is by turns penetrating , insightful , honest , sloppy , erudite , superficial , hot-blooded , serious , and florid . " Berman begins the book with a discussion of the September 11 attacks of 2001 . He then details the ideology of Sayyid Qutb , an influential figure behind the development of Islamism , before moving on to a general overview of suicidal Islamic extremist violence that preceded the World Trade Center attacks . Berman argues against the two popular views that the success of groups such as al Qaeda are either , first , the lashing out of the socially oppressed or , second , an alien , distant product of a Muslim people with fundamentally anti-Western religious beliefs and values
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Terror and Liberalism