Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam - Softcover

Burke, Jason

4.02

523 ratings by Goodreads

9780141019123: Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141019123 ISBN 13: 9780141019123

Publisher: Penguin, 2004

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Jason Burke has produced the definitive account of Islamic militancy - revolutionising our understanding of Al-Qaeda, retelling its history from scratch and critically exploding the myths that form the very foundations of the 'War on Terror'.
Fully updated with new material on Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Review:

"...it should be compulsory reading for Rumsfeld and his clique". -- Sam Kiley, Evening Standard, 16th June 2003

"A must-read...Burke’s sophisticated view of Al-Qaeda is convincing. Burke’s book is the one that will last. It’s a triumph". -- Giles Foden, The Guardian, 6th September 2003

"He has given us an indispensable guide to the multidimensional reality of Al-Qaeda" -- John Gray, New Statesman, July 2003

"He has given us an indispensable guide to the multidimensional reality of Al-Qaeda". -- John Gray, New Statesman, July 2003

"This book is an eye-opener...authoritative and detailed". -- Hazhir Teimourian, The Literary Review, September 2003

"...it should be compulsory reading for Rumsfeld and his clique". -- Sam Kiley, Evening Standard, 16th June 2003

From the Back Cover:

On a hot summer's day in 1996 a plane carrying Osama bin Laden and a few friends and family landed just outside the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The Saudi-born Islamic activist had little equipment, few followers and minimal local support. Yet within five years he had built an organization that was to carry out the most shocking and devastating terrorist attack in history. In Arabic, the term "Al-Qaeda" is an abstract noun meaning resource, network or base. In the West, it symbolizes a great threat to global security. Though its Afghan training camps have now been reduced to dust, no one believes that al-Qaeda was destroyed with them. But what is al-Qaeda? Is it a disciplined, motivated, structured terrorist organization led by a single criminal mastermind or no more than an idea, a language in which angry young Muslim men can articulate their rage? Bin Laden's aim to provoke conflict between militant Islam and the West appears closer to fulfilment than ever!
. But is al-Qaeda the catalyst of this conflict, or merely a symbol of it? This is an investigation of the al-Qaeda phenomenon by a recognized expert on the subject.

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