Considerable rigour is given to explanations of the rise of Arab nationalism, Salafism, Ba'athism and Islamism, although, as Ruthven notes in his afterword, much of the rise of the latter ideology took place after the book was published.
The opposition is so much so that even the Yihewani Chinese sect, which is fundamentalist and was founded by Ma Wanfu who was originally inspired by the Wahhabis, reacted with hostility to Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing, who attempted to introduce Wahhabism/Salafism as the main form of Islam.