"With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to Iran's fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of countless intellectuals, the birth of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS" -- Amazon.

Cassette revolution --Today Tehran, tomorrow Jerusalem -- Bleeding heart -- Darkness -- I killed the Pharaoh -- No Dupatta -- Kerbala in Beirut -- Shia Kafir -- Mecca is Mine -- Culture wars -- Black wave -- Generation 1979 -- Cain and Abel -- Fracture -- Surrender -- Counterrevolution -- Between ISIS and IRGC -- Achilles' Heel -- Murder on the Bosporus.