Love death. This is the bizarre instruction the founder of an Egyptian sect called the Muslim Brotherhood imparted to his followers in the 1920s. A disciple named Mohammed Atta copied the instruction into his journal just before leading the attack on the World Trade Center three days before my biopsy. Was it a coincidence that this dark wisdom took root in Egypt, a country of monuments to the human quest for life beyond the grave? The sentence Mohammed Atta actually jotted down was this: “Prepare for jihad and be lovers of death.”
How can one love death? This is the enigma at the heart of human history, a narrative moved by war between tribes and nations. For how can men go to war unless they love death, or a cause that is worth more than life itself?