The horrific acts of anti-Western and anti-Jewish terrorism carried out by Muslim fanatics during the last decades have been labeled by politicians, religious leaders, and scholars as a "Clash of Civilizations." However, as the contributors to this book explain, these acts cannot be considered an Islamic onslaught on Judeo-Christian civilization. While the hostile ideas, words, and deeds perpetrated by supporters among the three monotheistic civilizations cannot be ignored, history has demonstrated a more positive, constructive - albeit complex - relationship among Muslim, Christians, and Jews during medieval and modern times. For long periods of time, they shared divine and human values - cooperated in cultural, economic, and political fields - and have influenced one another's thinking. This book examines religious and historical themes of these three civilizing religions, including the impact of education on their interrelationship, the problem of Jerusalem, as well as contemporary interfaith relations. Noted scholars and theologians - Jewish, Christian, and Muslim - from the United States, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Palestine, and Turkey contribute to this book, the theme of which was first presented at an international conference organized by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the Divinity School, Harvard University.

Italy, 1944 - this is the setting of one of the most convincing and quietly magnificent stories about man and war that has ever been written. Here, (distilled from the experiences and observations of one who fought with them in the British infantry unit) is the mood of those who fought and died at Anzio. Their task - to seize the Alban Hills and then Rome forty miles away. Instead, for more than four months, they sank into the mud of the Anzio plain and fought for their lives. Nothing has appeared since Erich Maria Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT that can compare with this book's ability to penetrate the minds of men at war. There are no heroes, no heroines, no victories. This is a faceless, nameless, fragmented war. Even national differences - Britain, Italian, German, American - merge and are forgotten in this larger story of humanity. This story, in fact, does not need to be Anzio; it could be any battlefield where man has faced death.