Holy Terrors

[Dave Monroe]

Lincoln, Bruce.  Holy Terrors: Thinking about
   Religion after September 11th.  Chicago:
   U of Chicago P, 2002.

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, it
is tempting to regard their perpetrators as evil
incarnate. But their motives, as Bruce Lincoln shows
in this timely offering, were profoundly and intensely
religious. What we need, then, after September 11 is
greater clarity about what we take religion to be.
With rigor and incisiveness, Holy Terrors examines the
implications of September 11 for our understanding of
religion and how it interrelates with politics and
culture. 

Lincoln begins with a gripping dissection of the
instruction manual given to each of the hijackers. In
their evocation of passages from the Quran, we learn
how the terrorists justified acts of destruction and
mass murder "in the name of God, the most merciful,
the most compassionate." Lincoln then offers a
provocative comparison of President Bush's October 7
speech announcing U.S. military action in Afghanistan
and Osama bin Laden's videotape released hours later.
Each speech, he argues, betrays telling
contradictions. Bin Laden, for instance, conceded
implicitly that Islam is not unitary, as his religious
rhetoric would have it, but is torn by deep political
divisions. And Bush, steering clear of religious
rhetoric for the sake of political unity, still
reassured his constituents through coded allusions
that American policy is firmly rooted in faith. 

Lincoln ultimately broadens his discussion further to
consider the role of religion since September 11 and
how it came to be involved with such fervent acts of
political revolt. In the postcolonial world, he
argues, religion is widely considered the most viable
and effective instrument of rebellion against economic
and social injustices. It is the institution through
which unified communities ensure the integrity and
continuity of their culture in the wake of
globalization. Brimming with insights such as these,
Holy Terrors will become one of the essential books on
September 11 and a classic study on the character of
religion. 

Holy Terrors includes complete transcripts of the
instruction manuals given to each of the hijackers, as
found in the luggage of Mohamed Atta, as well as
President George W. Bush's address to the nation on
October 7 and Osama bin Laden's speech released the
same day. 

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15399.ctl

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