Hearts of Terrorists | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook

TODAY IS SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2010

Friday, August 22, 2003 at 10:00 AM EDT

Hearts of Terrorists

Jessica Stern bravely ventured into the hearts of Muslim fundamentalists organizations in Pakistan, Gaza, and Indonesia. She met with a vast array of extremist groups, including both the Jewish Underground in Hamas in Israel, the creator of the Taliban in Pakistan, and a former commander of the Covenant, the Sword, and the Army of the Lord in a trailer park in Texas.

Military solutions, she warns, will not bring down religious terrorism, and in many cases, it will only work as a rallying cry to strengthen the terrorists’ cause.

In a sharply-worded New York Times Op-Ed, Stern warns that the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was the latest evidence that America has taken a country that was not a terrorist threat and turned it into one.

Guests:

Jessica Stern, lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, author of “Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill”

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