
How to Win a Cosmic War
God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror
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Narrated by:
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Sunil Malhotra
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By:
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Reza Aslan
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.
©2009 Reza Aslan (P)2009 Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...




















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Good read
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As much as one may wish to agree with Aslan, the mixture of religion and government in the Nuclear Age seems like a formula for Armageddon. On the other hand, time settled many terrorist wars of the past. Every democracy does not mean American’ democracy, but democracy has always endorsed in-between beliefs within its polities. Aslan’s argument for “How to Win a Cosmic War” offers a little hope but with big risk.
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Great book! Inspiring to fight against radicalism!
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Good, but dated.
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Broadens your perspective
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For those who want to understand:
- the social, demographic and cultural specifics that lead to the nuances of the worlds most spread religions
- the origins of some of the terms used widely today - jihadism, fundamentalism,...
- the difference between fundamentalism (not just Islamic) and Islamism
- constructive ideas of countering the "bad-VS-good" mentality spread on both sides of the world
- how radical religious social movements differ from established religious institutions
Overall an insightful listen.
A book of understanding
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my books before bedtime
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Do you know the difference between Islamism and Jihadism? Do you know the differences between what it's like to be Muslim in Europe vs. the United States? I highly recommend this book, especially in the wake of Paris, Brussels, Ankara, Lahore, London, and 9/11.
This will make you smarter!
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How to win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan
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His ability to cite Christian scripture and make it sound ominous (a claim to be "washed in the blood" should not be understood as threatening) needs to be understood, I think, against the backdrop of people reading the Qur'an in equally ominous ways. If you focus on the global pronouncements, this book is simplistic. He does not have any simple solutions that are going to bring peace in the war on terror or in any other war. However, the book can be very helpful in sorting out a range of Muslim attitudes.
Helpful approach to a difficult subject
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