Customer Reviews

Terrorism in the Philippines: THE BLOODY TRAIL OF ABU SAYYAF, BIN LADEN'S EAST ASIAN CONNECTION

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When I first began reading this book I was taken aback by how horrible the writing was. It is for the most part grammatically incorrect. My fears were partially allayed when I read on the back cover that the author was in fact Dutch, and did not speak English as his first language. While I would have thought the publisher should have taken responsibility for cleaning up the writing, I gave the book a second chance and continued reading. It became abundantly clear that the author had very little in depth knowledge of the Abu Sayaf group. The entire first quarter of the book is nothing but filler explaining Islam and the concept of martyrdom in very generic and in places incorrect terms. What little I could stomach reading further when the author actually began to write about the ASG was also very generic and partially incorrect, or at least in contradiction to other writing on the subject. I have no way to determine if the author's sources are in fact more authentic because he fails to cite anything of significance. The few endnotes that he has for each chapter are almost exclusively from secondary sources. The only explanation I can come up with for the publishing of this book was that the publisher saw an opportunity to make a quick buck shortly after 9/11 by publishing a book with the words "Terrorism" and "Bin Laden" on the cover. If you are looking for a well researched and informative book on this topic I would recommend Militant Islam in Southeast Asia by Zachary Abuza.