How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror

A cosmic war is a religious war. It is a battle not between armies or nations, but between the forces of good and evil, a war in which God is believed to be directly engaged on behalf of one side against the other. The hijackers who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, thought they were fighting a cosmic war. According to award-winning writer and scholar of religions Reza Aslan, by infusing the United States War on Terror with the same kind of religiously polarizing rhetoric and Manichean worldview, is also fighting a cosmic war-a war that can't be won. How to Win a Cosmic War""is both an in-depth study of the ideology fueling al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, and like-minded militants throughout the Muslim world, and an exploration of religious violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Surveying the global scene from Israel to Iraq and from New York to the Netherlands, Aslan argues that religion is a stronger force today than it has been in a century. At a time when religion and politics are increasingly sharing the same vocabulary and functioning in the same sphere, Aslan writes that we must strip the conflicts of our world-in particular, the War on Terror-of their religious connotations and address the earthly grievances that always lie behind the cosmic impulse. How do you win a cosmic war? By refusing to fight in one.

About the Author :
Reza Aslan is assistant professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, and Senior Fellow at the Orfalae Center for Global and International Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara. His first book, No god but God, has been translated into thirteen languages and was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award.

Review :
"In this provocative and engaging book, Reza Aslan shows why he is one of America's leading analysts of the confusing and frightening forces that confront us. It is Aslan's great gift to see things clearly, and to say them clearly, and in this important new work he offers us a way forward. He is prescriptive and passionate, and his book will make you think."-- Jon Meacham, author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House "'Terror' is never going to show up with a pen to sign a peace treaty ending the "War on Terror." The use of that phrase has created a black hole into which serious talk about serious topics--including, by all means, Islam but also Christianity and Judaism--has disappeared. Reza Aslan's elegant, incisive book breaks the spell cast by "the emperor's new talk" and signals that the conversation the world has been waiting for may at last be about to begin."--Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of God: A Biography "Reza Aslan's is an indispensable voice with an urgently needed message. His book reaches across a world chasm that too many regard as unbridgeable - with balance, eloquence, and rare wisdom."--James Carroll, author of" Constantine's Sword" and" Practicing Catholic" "Reza Aslan's""How To Win A Cosmic War hovers confidently over a vast historical terrain, landing where it must to explore how common and terrible apocalyptic thinking is--how it plagues every religious tradition, every inspired nationalism, and cannot be defeated with brute force, upon which it thrives. A unique primer for pragmatic leaders whose patient enlightenment is the real antidote to terror."--Bernard Avishai, author of" The Hebrew Republic" and" The Tragedy of Zionism" Praise for Reza Aslan's "No god but God" "Grippingly narrated and thoughtfully examined . . . a literate, accessible introduction to Islam." "-The New York Times" "Aslan offers an invaluable introduction to the forces that have shaped Islam. . . . An eloquent, erudite paean to Islam in all of its complicated glory." "-Los Angeles Times Book Review" "Wise and passionate . . . an incisive, scholarly primer in Muslim history and an engaging personal exploration." "-The New York Times Book Review" "Precise . . . acutely perceptive . . . For many troubled Muslims, this book will feel like a revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried." -"The Independent" (London) "Thoroughly engaging and excellently written . . . While [Aslan] might claim to be a mere scholar of the Islamic Reformation, he is also one of its most articulate advocates." "-The Oregonian"