Armour uses the bestof contemporary research to show the reader how events such as the Crusades and the Reconquista of Spain have indelibly shaped the mindset of the West toward Islam and vice versa. He reveals how modern political and economic system--marked by globalization of capitalism, technology, and science--has been perceived by the Islamic world as a Godless secular assault on all that s holy. He ends with the Arab-Israeli confict and the eventson 11 September 2001 as the latest and most concrete manifestation of the tragic encounter between the three 'Peoples of the Book.'
