The bloodshed perpetrated in the name of religion in the world today is nowhere more obvious than in the Middle East. Whether we are talking about hardcore Zionist settlers still fighting ancient Biblical battles in the hills of the West Bank or Shiite death squads roaming the lawless streets of Iraq in the aftermath of Saddam; whether it''s the misappropriation and martyrdom of Mickey Mouse by Gaza''s Islamists, or a US president acting on God''s orders, James Hider sees the hallucinatory effect of what he calls the ''crack cocaine of fanatical fundamentalism'' all around him.

As James Hider travels around the Middle East, from Israel to Gaza, to Iraq ­and then back to Jerusalem, he takes his doubts about religious beliefs to the very heart of the world''s holy wars. He meets terrorists and their victims, soldiers and clerics, ordinary people and extraordinary people. The question in the back of his mind is: how can people not only believe in all this madness, but die and kill for it too?

This timely book casts an unflinching yet compassionate eye on the very worst and most violent crimes committed in the name of religion and asks questions that the world needs to answer if we are to stand a chance of facing our own worst demons.