Because They Hate

Brigitte Gabriel

 http://www.amazon.com/Because-They-Hate-Survivor-America/dp/0312358377/


Review by Donald N. Anderson (a reduced version of this review is on Amazon.com):

Brigitte Gabriel has written one of the essential books for all Americans and other supporters of Western civilization.  If anyone has any doubts about the importance our fighting in the Middle East and support for Israel, they must read this book.  Without filling in all the steps she shows the tools Fundamentalist Islam will use to force itself on the entire world.  The Muslims have a very long term view and the reawakening of Jihad may involve the West in protracted warfare for centuries.

The recent Israeli response to Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, and our invasion of Iraq are just two of the battles in a global war against a primitive cult that has the ideology, manpower, and money (thanks to the West’s oil purchases) to make a very serious long term bid to destroy Western civilization and most specifically the United States.  She identifies the techniques they will use and makes a vigorous and clear call to her adopted country to wake up and look at the real Middle East and not some superimposed set of western abstractions promoted by skilled Islamic propagandists.

The autobiographical portion of the book is riveting and we are indeed fortunate that she survived her childhood in Southern Lebanon.  The description of the extermination of significant portions of the majority Christian population in Lebanon is a seldom told story.  She vividly describes the revelation when she learned that Israeli’s we not the monsters her culture had taught her, and in fact were a culture so superior to her own that she bent every effort to become a part of it.

Many others have also commented on the dishonesty, death seeking spiritual, and intellectual poverty of Arab culture, but her examples leave an unforgettable impression.

I believe the Publishers Weekly reviewer (copy below) misunderstands Arab culture, the conflicts for devout Muslims and the seriousness of the threat of Jihad.  He therefore thinks Ms. Gabriel is too extreme to be informative.  Unfortunately he is so steeped in Western modes of thought that he is unable to appreciate the cultural differences and the appeal that fundamentalist Islam has for millions of devout but normally peaceful believers.

In 238 pages of text Ms. Gabriel amazingly produces a more comprehensive picture of the current terrorist problems around the world, than I have found in any of the 40 books I have read on the Middle East, including some 3 times as long.  Many other books will give a description of one or more aspect in depth, but Ms. Gabriel provides a vivid and well written overview of the problems.

If you read nothing else about the “war on terror,” read this book.


Amazon.com has a number of fine reviews with exceptionally high scores for this book on their site.