Religion in the media: A look at recent books, music and Web sites.

BOOKS

"Infidels: A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam," by Andrew Wheatcroft (Random House, 420 pages, $28.95)

A gigantic pennant of blue silk portraying the Crucifixion is paraded through the crowded streets of Naples. In Constantinople, the sultan bestows an emerald flag embroidered in gold with the names of God on the admiral of the Ottoman fleet. These banners fluttering from galley masts as Christendom sails into battle against the Islamic empire become symbol and source of violent antipathy between two of the world's great civilizations.

The stunning opening scene of the 1571 Battle of Lepanto off the Greek shores is just one of Wheatcroft's vivid narratives chronicling historic struggles along Muslim-Christian fault lines in Spain, the Levant and the Balkans.

From the conquest of Jerusalem in 636 to the war in Iraq of 2003, Wheatcroft reveals the power of history and myth to demonize holy warrior and infidel, Muslim and Christian. He resurrects these ghosts, these maledicta, hoping to exorcise the wellspring of "thirteen centuries of fear and hatred" that distorts our perceptions and relations.

His commentary on mass communication and social psychology, and a conclusion parsing the Bush administration's rhetoric about the War on Terror are not always sufficiently integrated into the historical account of jihad and Crusade. But words and images are revealed as uncontrollable weapons throughout this fascinating read.

_ Gretel C. Kovach