Radical Rhetoric-Moderate Behavior is a book intended for a wide audience including journalists, policymakers, scholars, as well as students of political science, Islam, cultural anthropology, security studies, and South Asian studies. Its strength draws from the author’s decade long research experience in Pakistan, substantial sets of empirical data gathered among respondents and informants in urban Punjab, a thorough review of theoretical contributions, and a careful analysis and presentation of data. Although the book centers on urban Punjab, it has relevance far beyond and may be useful for understanding contemporary Muslim societies in general as well as how Muslims globally think about issues relating to everyday Islam, political Islam, as well as the sensitive topic relating to an ever-increasing portrayal of Muslims as inherently dangerous.
 
Early appraisals for Radical Rhetoric-Moderate Behavior:
David Hansen’s study confirms the fact that most Pakistanis are still moderate, despite the growing attraction of radical rhetoric. It has an immediacy and ‘presence’ that the many other books lack, we get the feeling that we are listening to Pakistanis offer their views and emotions on a range of issues, the flavor of Pakistan jumps off the page. This book should be consulted by all policymakers concerned about the future of this troubled state; Pakistan is changing fast, in unpredictable and frightening ways, it has now, in David Hansen’s’ fine book received the close scholarly attention that it deserves.
Dr. Stephen P. Cohen, Brookings Institution
 
This work of high scholarship must be distinguished from many recent, but relatively superficial, accounts of Pakistan's ongoing cultural revolution. Hansen brilliantly contrasts the extreme Islamic rhetoric in Pakistani society with its relatively moderate behavior – at least so far. Based upon his doctoral field work, which sometimes involved considerable personal risk, he carefully documents the revolutionary grass-root level changes in Pakistani culture that are pushing it towards a xenophobic radicalism. Without losing empathy and respect for the object of his study, he lets facts speak for themselves.
Professor Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, Lahore University of Management Sciences
 
Dr. David Hansen is a Norwegian-Pakistani scholar who has carried out extensive studies and research on and in Pakistan since 2001. Hansen has a broad and multidisciplinary background. The main bulk of his education falls within South Asian Studies – in which he holds a PhD. His scholarly focus is primarily on contemporary expressions of Islam, political Islam and Islamism, and the radical dimension often associated with Islam in South Asia in general, and Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular. Hansen is currently Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Bjørknes College, Oslo-Norway.