In a penetrating analysis, Slavoj Žižek demonstrates that behind September 11 and the subsequent fight against terrorism, which reached its provisional peak in the Iraq War, lies the inner entanglement of global capitalism and Muslim fundamentalism. After the events of September 11, the end of the age of irony was proclaimed everywhere: the time of playful non-commitment was over, and in the fight against terrorism, one was either on the side of freedom or on the side of despotism. Really? Žižek asks, and in his analysis of the spiritual situation of our time, he shows that ideologically motivated dichotomies of this kind must not only be seen as the actual engine of the conflict but also obscure any possible alternatives; global capitalism and Islamic fundamentalism are two sides of the same coin.