Love d**h. This is the bizarre instruction the founder of an Egyptian sect called the m**m 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 d**h.”
How can one love d**h? 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 d**h, or a cause that is worth more than life itself?