The attention of Americans suddenly focused on Islam and Muslims in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and to many in the United States this felt unprecedented. But Islam and Muslims had dominated American public life once before, during the period of the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis, from 1979 to 1981. On both of these occasions, Americans found themselves targeted for reasons stemming from a militant interpretation of Islam. It was in response to that first heightened interest in Islam that Daniel Pipes wrote In the Path of God. His intention was to present an overview of the connection between in Islam and political power through history in a way that would explain the origins of the current crisis.