I'm Krista Tippett, today former Islamist extremist at Hussein.

In its fervor to deter terrorist acts, he says, the West is failing to understand the

long-term threat, a spreading mindset that makes him and others susceptible to radicalization

in the first place.

This hour he takes us inside pivotal territory of modern life, the personality of a suicide

bomber and the critical inner dialogue of Muslims in and with Western societies.

It must be said that al-Qaeda is just a name, it's really a mindset that we must be tackling

literalist, rejectionist, Islamist worldview and not necessarily al-Qaeda as an organization

because that can become defunct but those ideas still remain so it's not a war on terror

as the American government has gone out of its way to suggest but it's actually a battle

of ideas.

This is speaking of faith, stay with us.

Speaking of faith is supported by the Fetzer Institute, sponsor of Karen Armstrong's

Charter for Compassion.

You can learn more at Fetzer.org.

I'm Krista Tippett.

The news is once again full of Western resolve to fight terrorism and tighten airport security.

But are we in the meantime failing to diagnose and address the larger threat that makes all

this necessary?

My guest this hour Ed Hussein sparked debate and soul-searching across Great Britain with

his 2007 memoir The Islamist, why I became an Islamic fundamentalist, what I saw inside

and why I left.

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