physco jihad, is the adventure of an american innocent who blunders into the middle of an islamist uprising in west africa. dizzy banks, an american contract employee, must survey a local population in rural west africa, in an area where increasing political instability has thrown strategic american oil rights in the region into question. banks is only interested in completing the assignment because it will get him a better job back home in chicago. aggressively apolitical, banks is naively unaware of the rising jihadist movement in his territory. his employers post him covertly as a village tutor, but his real goal is to survey the shift in the political atmosphere of the region and report to his superiors. in his role as village tutor, however, banks unwittingly encourages the local girls to attend the school out of his american dedication to equal opportunity for all, which flies in the face of a violent conservative and subsequent islamist hostility towards these untraditional ideals. his school is attacked and banks must flee for his life. he is captured by the insurgents who intend to execute him. he discovers that they are also planning an attack meant to harm a visiting american official. needless to say, he soon realizes that his customary response of "not my problem, man" will no longer suffice.