Eamon Murphy is Adjunct Professor in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University in Western Australia. His publications include The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan (Routledge, 2013) and Contemporary State Terrorism (co-edited with Richard Jackson and Scott Poynting, Routledge, 2010).
Unlike some other works on this topic, Murphy's presentation is highly readable and includes a helpful glossary for nonspecialists and other interested readers who might feel overwhelmed when approaching the terminology for the first time. This makes his book an excellent introductory work for undergraduates in various fields, journalists covering terrorist incidents as they unfold, and security analysts who probably are not steeped in jargon or otherwise already familiar with sectarian Islam and Pakistani politics. Eamon Murphy successfully resists the temptation to write a meaningful academic work that can only be read by academics. Without oversimplifying, he explains what actual religious rivalries in Pakistan are hinged upon by making plain how sectarianism became politicised. Adil Hussain Khan, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA, USA