{"product_id":"9780061959417","title":"Dying for Heaven: Holy Pleasure and Suicide Bombers-Why the Best Qualities of Religion Are Also Its Most Dangerous","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhy do terrorists do what they do? Not only are religiously motivated terrorists willing to self-destruct to achieve their goals, but neither threats nor incentives consistently prevent their devastating acts. Compounding this is the fact that soon extremist nations and terrorist groups in the Middle East and Asia will have nuclear weapons and may be driven by religion to use them. Is nuclear terror inevitable or can it be prevented?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAriel Glucklich, Georgetown professor of religion and advisor to the U.S. defense community, reveals the fallacy of our country's three major assumptions about the motivations that lie behind terrorism:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethat religious terrorists are acting out of hatred for us,\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethat belief in paradise is the chief factor in their willingness to die for their cause, and\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethat religious extremism is always irrational.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe astonishing reality Glucklich reveals is that these radicals\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003esincerely believe they are motivated by love, \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eactually are attempting to fight internal enemies or “heretics” within their own societies, and\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003edesire fame and honor in the here and now, rather than a promised afterlife in heaven.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDying for Heaven\u003c\/em\u003e offers a groundbreaking theory of religion and religious destructiveness; the book examines the motivations fueling those who perpetrate religious violence around the globe—from Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists to violent Hindu nationalists, from Jewish-Zionist fundamentalists in Israel to leaders in Iran's race for nuclear weapons, and to Christian messianic defenders of American power. The continuing rise of religion as a global force and the proliferation of nuclear weapons create a unique challenge for policy advisors, who now must understand how far religious extremists will go toward nuclear annihilation. \u003cem\u003eDying for Heaven\u003c\/em\u003e provides the key for understanding the religious drive to self-destruct and offers ways to combat the culture of suicide terrorism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47077957763312,"sku":"9780061959417","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780061959417_p0.jpg?v=1763624900","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780061959417","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}