The most frightening aspect of this new threat, however, was the fact that almost no one took it seriously. It was too bizarre, to primitive and exotic. Up against the confidence that Americans placed in modernity and technology and their own ideals to protect them from the savage pageant of history, the defiant gestures of bin Laden and his followers seemed absurd and even pathetic.
-- Lawrence Wright (Prologue paragraph 2)

Importance: The author argues that Islamist extremism is a threat primarily because Americans do not understand it and assume that nothing can harm them after their victory in the Cold War.

Only Islam offered a formula for creating a just and godly society. Thus the real struggle would eventually show itself: It was not a battle between capitalism and communist; it was between Islam and materialism. And inevitably Islam would prevail.
-- Lawrence Wright (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: The author shows that Sayyid Qutb saw no distinction between capitalism and communism, the major...