The Anatomy of Terrorism/Mahmood Bin Muhammad. New Delhi, APH, 2004, xiii, 145 p., ISBN 81-7648-682-5.

    Contents: Preface. 1. The anatomy of terrorism. 2. Fundamentals of fundamentalism. 3. Towards a new Asian perspective. 4. Extremism, human rights, and police. 5. Between the fire and the fire engine. 6. Restructuring the selection machinery. 7. In search of a leader. 8. Secularism in a religious society. 9. Human values, the missing link. 10. As society becomes affluent, delinquency increases. 11. Portrait of a delinquent. 12. The problems of youth are the problems of the police. 13. The victim in criminal justice. 14. An open letter to General Musharraf. 15. Untying the Gordian knot. 16. Jang na hone denge. 17. The bus to Pakistan. 18. The Kashmir imbroglio. Index.

    "This book has a two-fold purpose: first, to identify, analyse and encapsulate a theme that has dominated world news ever since September 11, 2001, and second, to dispel the various myths surrounding it.

    In reality, terrorism has nothing to do with religion but everything to do with psychosocial factors. Radical movements are usually born out of a perception of alienation or marginalisation, a brooding sense of injustice rankling in the human heart. Driven to the breaking point -- which is different for each of us-one becomes, out of sheer frustration, a terrorist, a criminal or otherwise abnormal. The answer is to be sought in a new social order: in homes and schools, not in battlefields; in parents and teachers, not in warriors; in the pen, tongue and the heart, not in the sword.

    Someone said pithily: "If you seek peace without justice, you shall have neither peace nor justice." As a result, wars are won but peace is lost. This is what is happening in the world today.

    The author's rich police background is visible throughout his compilation. The reader will be struck not only by the timeliness and timelessness of the thoughts expressed but also by their consistency. The book is bound to attract the interest of social scientists and social activists, police officials and public men, students and scholars alike and, above all, every citizen who is genuinely concerned about the present state of the nation and the world." (jacket)

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