Leaderless Jihad

"It might be comforting to think that angry young Islamists are crazed psychopaths or sex-starved adolescents who have been brainwashed in malign madrassas. But Mr Sageman, a senior fellow at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, explodes each of these myths, and others besides, in an unsettling account of how Al Qaeda has evolved from the organisation headed by Osama bin Laden into an amorphous movement-a 'leaderless jihad.'"—The Economist

"Leaderless Jihad discredits conventional wisdom about terrorists by eschewing anecdotes and conjecture in favor of hard data and statistics."—Aryn Baker, Time

"Sageman's incisive observations based on carefully examined evidence, astute insights, and scholarship make Leaderless Jihad the gold standard in Al Qaeda studies."—Washington Times

"[An] important, face-the-facts book . . . Sageman is deservedly one of the best-known academics working on terrorism."—Spectator

"What distinguishes his new book, Leadless Jihad is that it peels away the emotional, reflexive responses to terrorism that have grown up since Sept. 11, 2001, and looks instead at scientific data Sageman has collected on more than 500 Islamic terrorists-to understand who they are, why they attack, and how to stop them."—David Ignatius, Washington Post

"Leaderless Jihad provides new analysis and important insights. . . . Sageman's data-driven approach is all too rare in a field dominated by informed (when we're fortunate) opinion."—The American Interest

"Marc Sageman is an extraordinarly thoughtful and creative analyst of the complex patterns of Islamic radicalization taking place within our integrated global culture. His work challenges the way we think about terrorism and and offers important insights about what should be done to prevent or contain such violence."—Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

"This book belongs at the top of the list for anyone seeking to understand the nature of radical Islamic terrorism, its future, and the effective ways that Western countries can counter its destructive appeal."—Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11