Customer Reviews

The Al Qaeda Reader: The Essential Texts of Osama Bin Laden's Terrorist Organization

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I'm just blown away when somebody creates a product, in this case a book, that so perfectly fits the requirements of its time.
I picture 302 million Americans turning to each other on 9/11/2001 and saying, "What?" "Al WHAT? The U.S. is the 'Great Satan'? What are these people talking about? What do they think we've done to them? What kind of religion encourages suicide & mass destruction?
"The Koran says people of different religions can live together. It says suicide is forbidden. It says not to kill women and children in war. It talks about kindness, taking care of the poor, and always considering the ethics of one's behavior. How, then, do they justify committing suicide, blowing themselves up in the midst of crowds of women, children, innocent bystanders, and fellow Moslims in the process?
"What in the WORLD is going on here?"
This book homes in on the basic thinking of al Qaeda and the Jihadists--how they justify their actions according to the basic texts of their religion, even though many other Moslems disagree with their interpretation.
What's fascinating is how logical they are. They are not irrational. Theirs is a very legalistic religion in which every possible human action is categorized according to the Koran and the Hadith--bad or good! We know from experience that basic humane attitudes tend to lose their power when excessively legalistic thinking takes over.
What a relief to get some answers to the questions we've been asking ourselves and each other for the past 6 years.

As Sun Tzu in his 'Art of War' said: to win a war, know your enemy. To win the 'war on terror', this book would be on my list of required reading. Some generals during the Vietnam war didn't know about the tunnel warfare or choose to ignore them as insignificant, Hitler's Mein-Kamph and Mao's Red book were ignored as rubbish. Unfortunately, in the same vein, the 1400 year history of Muslim onslaught, starting from Mecca-Medina in Saudi-Arabia and spreading to all corners of the world, is not studied. The experience of peoples who fought against the Muslim onslaught for centuries and are still fighting, is not utilized and learned from. e.g. there are many Indian authors who have written a number of well researched books that are ignored.

Through sources such as this book and others, one would discover a lot of important information. e.g. in no particular order:
1) Same or similar strategies and tactics were used over and over again for 1400 years.
2) One would be surprised and find a simple and straightforward Muslim declaration that 'war is deception'. Considering this, everything we hear or read becomes suspect, specially: treaties, promises, safe-passages, proclamations of being brothers-in-arms, excuses for non-performance and such.
3) Everything is part of war: One would be surprised to see how various distinct elements of life are fused tightly together in Islam : religion, war to convert every non-Muslim to Islam (jihad), politics, finance, business, law etc.
4) Our practices such as: spending huge resources on trying to catch specific terrorists or getting into the cycle of tit-for-tat killing (10 terrorists for 10 innocent people killed by them) - these are exercises in futility. Such actions have not stopped the terrorist activities or changed their minds. One can come to this kind of awakenings only after 'knowing' the enemy. 1.e. the real responsibility lies with Umma (community, nation) and Ulema (learned ones, clergy). Absolutely nothing moves without express approval of (often a precedent is shown) Koran (the book) or Hadith (tradition & deeds of Muhammad) or sharia (Muslim law) and is sanctioned or quite often demanded (fatwa) by the Ulema (clergy).

There is much more.. may be I should write a book :)
So, get this book - and read it slowly over days.

Informative look at English translations of letters and essays written by Al Qaeda insiders to the Muslims at large explaining why it is their obligation as Muslims to kill Christians and Jews. Much repeating, but that's the way the original documents were written.

To the very considerable extent that the confict between the West and al Qaeda is a war of ideas, 2007's "The Al Qaeda Reader" is essential for understanding al Qaeda's point of view. Raymond Ibrahim has done American readers a great service in translating and editing a selection of al Qaeda documents on theology and propaganda. As Ibrahim notes in his introduction, "This volume of translations, taken as a whole, proves once and for all that, despite the propaganda of al-Qaeda and its sympathizers, radical Islam's war with the West is not finite and limited to political grievances - real or imagined - but is existential, transcending time and space and deeply rooted in faith."

"The Al Qaeda Reader" is divided into sections, beginning with a glossary of Arabic terms and important figures in Islam, then plunges into four documents on al-Qaeda's version of Islamic theology. These four documents make very clear that al Qaeda has no interest, indeed, cannot conceive of a live-and-let-live accomodation with the West. Al Qaeda instead offers the West three choices: Convert to Islam, agree to live under Islamic authority, or die. Al Qaeda believes that Islam demands offensive jihad of all its adherents, and this belief justifies all its tactics, whether suicide bombers or the slaughter of innocent non-combatants. Further, al Qaeda has no use for democracy, which it sees as a direct contravention of the authority of Allah and of the Sharia.

The second part of the book is a selection of propaganda statements made by al Qaeda leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden. Its principal value is to show the extent to which Al Qaeda leaders are capable of spinning a potent combination of half-truths and fantasy in dealing with the West and with its own followers. In al Qaeda's world, a vast, vague but evil conspiracy of Zionists, the West, and apostate Islamic rulers threatens to overwhelm the world, held back only by the heroism of a few true Islamists. An inability to defeat the West in a head-to-head military manner is buried beneath the glorification of acts of terrorism and a stunning series of lies about the nature of recent events in Palestine, Afganistan, and Iraq. The selections demonstrate how closely al Qaeda follows the Western media and how adept it has become in spinning events for the benefit of Western media.

Al Qaeda has convinced itself that a handful of Mujahedin not only defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan but destroyed the Soviet Union as well. Al Qaeda is similarly convinced, in spite of its failures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and elswhere, that the complete defeat of the West is just a matter of time. It no doubt counts on the inability of the West to recognized the implacable nature of its foe to contribute to that anticipated event.

This volume is very highly recommended to students of and participants in the global war on terrorism, who must understand the nature of al Qaeda if useful countermeasures are to be taken.

A collection of dozens of theological essays and press releases, The Al Qaeda Reader offers a terrifying look at the men who masterminded September 11th.

The book is divided into two broad sections: Theology and Propaganda. In the first, Ibrahim has gathered four essays written to fellow Muslims. The message sent to a more sympathetic audience of coreligionists is strikingly different that than proclaimed to the United States and the rest of the world. Rather than criticizing the Jews and an oil-hungry America, here Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri call upon the Koran, the ahadith (the sayings of Muhammad), the sunna (the example of Muhammad's life), and the writings of Muslim authorities to justify their jihad against the West and call fellow Muslims to join them.

The calls for repentence, for Israeli withdrawal, and other political grievances come in the Propaganda section. Here Al Qaeda disguises its theological agenda and speaks to the Western world in its own terms, calling on Europeans to abandon relations with the United States, on the United States of abandon its godless lifestyle and attacks on Islam, and on Iraqis to take up arms against the weak and almost-defeated invaders.

What makes this book extremely helpful--especially considering the theologically dense content of some of Al Qaeda's essays--is the introductory material and notes by translator and editor Raymond Ibrahim. Here he briefly outlines key Islamic terms, such as umma, fatwa, hadith, jizya, and many others. Another summarizes the most highly-regarded figures of Islamic history and theology. As these terms and figures crop up repeatedly within the material collected here, these sections proved immensely helpful.

But, to be honest, the book is still hard to read. Not only do terrorists seem to be bad writers--Zawahiri in particular crafts ponderous, soporific essays--but the subject matter at times becomes so sad and apalling that I had to put the book down. The terrible minds that conceived the words here almost threaten to warp the reader's own. But finishing the book is worth it, if not for the enlightenment then certainly for the greater appreciation of freedom that it brings.

In his introduction, Ibrahim recalls Adolf Hitler's political testament Mein Kampf: "though the world was well aware of his book, it was not taken seriously." In Mein Kampf, Hitler outlined his past and present hatreds and the terrible ideas he had for the future. The essays and proclamations collected in here do the same for Al Qaeda, Ibrahim says, and "the same mistake," ignoring the words of seeming madmen, "should not be made twice."

Highly recommended.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the war on terror, or the mindset of Al Qaeda. While I've seen some of these writings in English before, some of these are completely new, and all of them are translated in a way that makes it easier for an English language reader to understand better.

I liked this book a lot. It can be a tough read because it is a series of direct translations and the grammar and vocabulary are difficult. But it is a fascinating insight into the minds of the leaders of Al Qaeda. Their arguments for what they are doing and why are very precise and well presented. I was surpised to realize that their justification for everything is entirely based on their reading of the Koran and supporting islamic doctorine and that their treatises as translated here are filled with supporting quotes and references to these materials.

The Al Qaeda reader should be required reading for any student of Political Science who wants to understand terrorism. In their own words, Al Qaeda tells the western world why they are attacking Western interests and what they want. The question needs to be asked if the United States did everything Al Qaeda wants, would the jihad be over, or would Al Qaeda just find something else about the West they could hate? As with most readers or collection of speaches, themes are repeated at nausea, but any discussion of modern terrorism should begin with this book.

To A Louse
Robert Burns

O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae many a blunder free us,
An foolish notion:

Halfway effective propaganda is characterized by several things. It should contain as much truth (or believable lies) as possible. These act as that "spoon full of sugar" that "helps the medicine go down." It should also appeal to one's preconceived notions and prejudices, or create those prejudices and notions.

The Al Qaeda Reader demonstrates the truth of this. I believe this book accurately expresses what the radical Islamists believe (or, at least, claim to believe - true believers are not noted for being excessively in touch with reality). I do not agree with most of what is said in this book. Some of the facts in the book are accurate. Actually, enough of them are accurate to give the work credibility if you accept the Islamists' basic assumptions, which I don't. From the Al Qaeda viewpoint, the conclusions logically follow. The presentation is made (and made rather well) in a manner to appeal to those Moslems who feel victimized by events and/or by the west.

The mind set demonstrated in this book is one which should be familiar to anyone who has studied the history of any other organization, political, religious, or a combination of the two, which claims to have sole possession of THE TRUTH!!!! Change a few words and the book could be describing radical Christianity or Communism or lots of other organizations. In that respect, the book also demonstrates what I see as the weakness of Al Qaeda & etc. For every bin Laden, there is an Ibrahim, for every Torqemada there is a George, for every Stalin there is an Ivan who just wants a quiet life without all the brou-ha-ha of crusades or jihad or other vast, loud and dangerous causes.

Burns was right. The book allows us to "see oursels as ithers see us." If Al Qaeda's picture of us isn't pretty, the self portrait they present also lacks charm.

It's important to read these books so that we understand just where our enemies are coming from, and this is exactly what this book does. It gives the reader al Qaeda in their own words. It shows what we are facing, and the book will take away any illusions the reader might have about the type of people these are. What shines through in each essay is that these are ideologues who have no doubt in their cause. This is fervent belief that will not allow for introspection or moral consideration that may contradict their dogma. With al Qaeda their is no negotaiting or compromise.

With that said reading this book also shows that this group is doomed to failure on the margins of any society because what comes through is the total lack of a coherent agend that is in any way based in reality. They believe they are instruments of God's will, and through his divine power their goals will be met. The problem is that their ideology requires this divine support because they lack a positive agenda that will appeal to the masses. Instead what they offer is a nihilistic agenda of perpetual violence. Their goal of installing a caliphate over the Muslim lands simply by attacking the "godless" regimes is unrealistic. The fact that even the majority of Muslims today would be forced to either convert to their ideas or be murdered doesn't provide them with huge base of support even among Muslims. In the end this group is very dangerous but ultimately impotent. They should be taken seriously, but we should recognize their limitations as well so we don't overblow the threat we face.

Now as to the book itself; it is well done and organized in a reader friendly way. I didn't read them in order, but instead found it more interesting to read the sections that dealt with Americans, Europeans or Muslims together rather than reading them in sequential order as they were laid out. The organization is such that this was easily done.

The only problem is exactly what one would expect coming into this work, and that is redundancy of the material. This problem was inivetable. This is a byproduct of studying ideologues. Some of the problems are where the reader is inundated with verse after verse of the Koran or Sunna that supposedly supports a certain postition of al Qaeda's, or when one reads an essay that sounds almost exactly like the previous one. It gets old, but this should be expected from any book like this one that deals with extremist groups of any kind. One might be better served going to the library and reading a good sampling of these essays rather than buying the book and reading it all. It depends on why you come to this book. With that said I do recommend reading this book.