CHRISTOPHER CATHERWOOD

Trece siglos de guerras santas. Cristianos contra musulmanes. Sunnitas contra chiítas. Católicos contra protestantes. ¿Por qué los hombres emprenden guerras en nombre de Dios? Desde las primeras jihads del siglo VII y las cruzadas de la Edad Media, hasta las guerras de la Reforma y el terrorismo de los fanáticos de hoy, el ensayista Christopher Catherwood recorre la fascinante historia de las guerras santas y revela las sutilezas y los complejos detalles que resultan esenciales para comprender un tema que sigue dividiendo a la humanidad. El resultado es un libro agudo que analiza el pasado que ha forjado nuestro violento presente y la siniestra conexión entre guerra y religión.

Based on exhaustive research and written with an unflinching, unbiased eye towards revealing the often painful truth, Making War in the Name of God unveils humanity's ancient habit of sanctifying bloodshed - and exposes a past that seems doomed to repeat itself every day from the Middle East to Europe. From the first Jihads and the Crusades to the sectarian terrorism of today, acclaimed scholar Catherwood traces the fascinating history of holy war, revealing complexities that are vital to understanding a subject that continues to divide us all.

As Colonial Secretary in the 1920s Winston Churchill made a decision regarding the Middle East that was to have calamitous consequences. Scholar and strategic policy consultant, Christopher Catherwood discusses how Churchill created an artificial monarchy of Iraq after the First World War, forcing three radically different peoples to combine under a single ruler. Today's map of the Middle East, the rise of Saddam Hussein and Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003 are the unwitting legacy of a conference led by Churchill in Cairo in 1921. Inducing Arabs under the rule of the Ottoman Turks to rebel against their oppressors - abetted by T. E. Lawrence - the British and French during the First World War convinced the Hashemite clan that they would rule over Syria. In fact, Britain had already promised the territory to the French. Partly to make amends and partly for pragmatic economic reasons, Churchill created a single nation state, Iraq, and made the Hashemite leader Feisel king of a land with which he had no connection. Catherwood dissects Churchill's decision - the results of which continue to cause terrible grief to Iraq's indigenous peoples and anxiety to the rest of the world.