Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In the global search for culprits and causes in the rise of terrorism, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold shines a spotlight on a nation many think of as a close ally of the United States: Saudi Arabia. As he explains in Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism, Gold believes that the Saudi government is greatly influenced by the Islamist sect known as Wahhabism and, he explains, that influence has lead to Saudi support of terrorism in the Middle East, Europe, the United States and around the world. The historical portion of Gold’s argument, where he traces the emergence of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the changing face of Saudi leadership, is admirably extensive and detailed. His modern research is a little more uneven, relying on statements by various Muslim clergy members, letters to the editors of newspapers, opinion pieces, and other evidence that is rarely damnable. Curiously, mentions of Israel and the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict are much more infrequent than one would expect from an Israeli diplomat and scholar. But regardless of one’s opinion of Gold’s research or his alarming conclusions, the book offers something not often found in modern political nonfiction: a coherent structure, exhaustive research, and a clear and consistent perspective on the ongoing threat of terrorism. --John Moe
Book Description
In Hatred’s Kingdom, Dore Gold has the goods on Saudi Arabia, proving how it is actively supporting terrorism. Using previously unpublished documents, Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. and internationally known Middle East strategy expert, pieces together the links between the current wave of global terrorism—from the World Trade Center to Bali, Indonesia—and the ideology of hatred taught in the schools and mosques of Saudi Arabia.
Gold reveals:
1. How September 11 was only the most dramatic example of a new breed of terrorism, even now poised to strike again, that was born and nurtured in Saudi Arabia and quietly unleashed on the international community. 2. The deadly recipe that creates the new terrorism: a broad financial and military network mixed together with a strong motivating ideology that could compel people to sacrifice their lives and commit mass murder. Both of these ingredients grew together in Saudi Arabia, in a movement called Wahhabism.
3. How Wahhabi preachers in the main mosques of Saudi Arabia justify and support continued hostile acts against the U.S. and the West (translated sermons included). 4. How prominent Saudi Wahhabi clerics actually justify the 9/11 attacks in publications, which are revealed here and translated.
5. Shocking evidence of how the Saudis have financed the world’s most dangerous terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda and Hamas. Gold reveals the discovery of cancelled Saudi checks found in a Hamas headquarters in the West Bank. Internal Palestinian intelligence and political reports explicitly tie Saudi Arabia to radical Palestinian terrorist groups engaged in suicide bombings. Similar proof of Saudi backing for Islamic militants in Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Balkans, and the U.S. are presented.
Dore Gold connects the dots. He combines a rich knowledge of the history of the Middle East with a decade of hands-on diplomatic experience. If there is a single book that clearly explains Saudi Arabia, the complexities of the Middle East, and the rise of the new global terrorism in one volume, this is the one.