This work of reportage by independent journalist Smucker appears mainly aimed at countering the anti-Islamic hysteria connected to much of the rhetoric associated with discussions of terrorism threats and all too often disconnected from discussion of problematic US foreign policies that engender anger among Muslims. He draws on travels to Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and elsewhere in order to elucidate Muslim views towards the United States and US foreign policy through interviews with a broad spectrum of people in the Muslim world, as well as with US military officers, diplomats, and regional experts. In many civil society developments across the Muslim world he finds reason to hope for improved relations, but warns that the US must find a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict, end its support for autocratic dictatorships, and cease going abroad "in search of monsters to destroy" if it truly wishes to move beyond rhetoric and actually reach out to the Muslim world in friendship and thereby lessen the threat from terrorism. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)