Giannis Mazis studies the cultural/ideological essence of the Islamic Movement, the forms of its political organization and its ideological-political factions and schisms, its economic activities and sources of funding, and its various interventions in the systems of defense balances in the volatile and tormented Middle Eastern region.

The author maintains the necessary phlegmatic style for a realist and approaches the explosive phenomenon of Islamic political and paramilitary zealotry, systematically avoiding any attempt to demonize the Islamic phenomenon. This sober approach to deconstructing a complex phenomenon allows the reader to discern between Islam (which represents a common timeless and metaphysical worldview for the Muslim world) and the islams (with a lowercase 'i', in the plural) which constitute the vast mosaic of politicized Islam, sometimes radical and sometimes not, differentiated at the levels of culture, politics, social and anthropological data, historical roots, and geographic space.

It is particularly important that the geographer-author perceives with remarkable insight that there are many elements that can serve as reconciliatory between Western and Islamic cultures and that Islam should be viewed as a personal matter for the Believer. Thus, Giannis Mazis invites us to avoid prejudice and bias, as they are not good advisors for a scientific analysis, but also because they can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies with disastrous consequences.

Zealotry, clericalism, traditional trends, and paramilitary practices in their Sunni or Shia form reveal to the scholar an unexplored world for us Greeks, with which Western society must coexist and understand.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]