[citation needed] In December 2020 Reilly was named director of the Voice of America[2][3] and he was removed from that post in January 2021 shortly after President Biden's inauguration.

[4] From 1968 to 1970, Reilly served as a tank platoon leader (1st Lieutenant) in the 1/18th Armored Cavalry at Fort Lewis, Washington.

[5] He worked in the private sector from 1977 to 1981, and for The Heritage Foundation (1981, 1989) the U.S. Information Agency (1981–1983) and as Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan during the latter's first term (1983–1985).

In his review of the book, Frank Griffel describes it as "war literature", and "a Catholic refutation of Ash'arite Muslim theology", lamenting that Reilly constructs an undue equation between Ash'arism and contemporary Jihadism, while most Jihadists in fact follow Salafism and its more restrictive "traditionalist" school of theology which is hostile towards Ash'arism.

[2][9][3] Reilly was removed as the VOA Director on January 21, 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden's inauguration.