Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "ON OCTOBER 12, 1999, at precisely twelve o'clock, General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's powerful Chief of the Army Staff, settled into the first seat of the..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Saudi Arabia, General Musharraf (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"The accumulation of disorder in Pakistan is such that it could well be the next Yugoslavia," writes New Yorker correspondent Weaver (Portrait of Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam). She portrays a country mired in chaos and decay, speculating on whether Musharraf can win his war against the Islamic extremists and offering a portrait of a general she finds enigmatic. Weaver predicts disaster, not only for Pakistan but for the U.S., if he fails in his battle.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Though there have been several new books on Pakistan, these distinct essays, loosely fitted together, by New Yorker correspondent Weaver (Egypt: A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam) may be perfect for the reader with just a few minutes here and there to pop in and out of the text. Weaver's journalistic contact with Pakistan dates from 1982. She has interviewed two of Pakistan's recent leaders, Benazir Bhutto and General Pervez Musharraf, whose forceful personalities lend this section of the book an immediacy and authenticity. With greater detachment she describes, also drawing on her travels, the separatist movements in Baluchistan and the Sind, pointing out the consequent deep fault lines in the Pakistani state. Of less interest is her long description of the hunting of the Houbara bustard by many Arab sheikhs. Readers wanting a deeper treatment should try BBC correspondent Owen B. Jones's Pakistan: The Eye of the Storm, a thematic study of the nation's ethnic, religious, political, and geopolitical history. Recommended for public libraries.
John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Libs., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition (October 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374228949
• ISBN-13: 978-0374228941
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #753,774 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good effort but lacks depth that she could have provided, January 22, 2003

By A Customer

I really looked forward to the book that I finished in one setting. I was hoping based on the first chapter that she really was going to deliver the goods based on her knowledge and intimacy with the culture and its people. But alas it was not to be. Even though from western journalist standards it was much better effort. I think she could learn a lot more by reading Ayaz Amir and Irfan Hussain (dawn.com) about Pakistan instead of wasting hours talking to Benazir and others. I really wanted to get a grip on Musharraf and Benazir but she wastes her time on platitudes and makes Benazir and others looks more then they are ...A very hands off approach on Musharraf, Benazir and Zia alike. I guess she was trying her best not to offend anyone in case she ever wants to talk to them again. I could expect this from a novice journalist but not Ms. Weaver.
The rest of the book was bunch of newspaper stories stapled together and it had horrible flow--- you didn't know if these chapters are of the same book and no attempt was made to connect them. For example her chapter about Baluchistan and Arabs hunting had nothing to do whatsoever with current environment and she left everything about that in the Baluchistan 's wasteland 20 years back.
I really expected more then she gave. She also gave a short shrift to the US and Pakistan relationship and she doesn't give us any clues other then Gen. Zinny 's bit supporting his friend the general "w/o him Pakistan would turn in chaos" and other typical platitudes that western journalist have been known for when they are too lazy to get the real scoop. She also wastes her interviews w various leading Jehadi mullas and provides no insight then what you can get by driving around the compound or typically provided by a journalist sitting in a posh five star hotel from Islamabad... so alas a wasted effort from a very capable journalist. First Chapter is good but other chapters are just stapled together.
Please pass this on to that author I hope she reads it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars war everlasting, February 2, 2003

By A Customer

Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 23, 2003
By Ilene Prusher

For those who think that that other war - the one in Afghanistan - is over and done, think again. The characters and currents responsible for triggering the war on terror are as dedicated as they were a year ago, but the more likely battleground for years to come will be next door - in Pakistan, where much of the problem began.

That is one of the most important theses colorfully presented by Mary Anne Weaver in "Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan." Drawing on 20 years of reporting excursions in Pakistan and Afghanistan for The New Yorker and other publications, Weaver leads us on an illuminating journey that spans lawless tribal territory and presidential palaces alike. What we see when we look through her lens is a Pakistan more deeply troubled, more closely tied to the Taliban, and more rife with anti-American sentiment than anyone would like to admit.

But lest we let ourselves believe that this is all Pakistan's fault, Weaver fleshes out a historical footnote to Al Qaeda that Washington would just as soon forget. Osama bin Laden and friends attracted Islamic militants from around the world and gave them training in Afghanistan with America's help during the cold war. One of "the most startling ironies of today's militant Islamist movement, not just in Pakistan but across the Muslim world," she points out, "is that the great majority of its leaders were funded, armed, and trained - with the same enthusiasm with which they [are] now being pursued - by the United States."

Of all the rogues who benefited from Washington's patronage, Weaver says that the one who fared best was Gulbadin Hekmatyar, today considered perhaps the greatest threat to the transitional Afghan government led by Hamid Karzai. During the jihad years, Hekmatyar "received roughly 50 percent of the CIA's arms," Weaver writes, be- cause he was the darling of the ISI - Pakistan's intelligence agency - and the man who ruled Pakistan from the day he seized power in a military coup in 1977 until his mysterious death in a 1988 plane crash: Zia ul-Haq.

For readers to whom Zia is a familiar name and for those to whom it is not, Weaver provides a revealing profile of the man who changed the face of Pakistan, and tells us why we should care. It was Zia who claimed to be resurrecting the unrealized dreams of founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah by "Islamicizing" Pakistan and encouraging the growth of all-Islam, all-the-time education in the madrassahs. He wanted all of Pakistan's laws to conform to the Koran, even if many penalties would not be enforced. And he prioritized the development of Pakistan's then-nascent nuclear weapons program.

In this, Weaver also helps us understand why Pakistan's fate is so tied up, for better or worse, with Afghanistan's. Zia - as well as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto before him and every leader of Pakistan - lives in fear that ethnic Pashtuns throughout northwestern Afghanistan will take up arms and demand their own separate country, a so-called united Pashtunistan.

Some 30 years ago, when Pashtun leader Sardar Mohammed Daoud called on Pashtuns in Pakistan to join up with their brothers in Afghanistan, Bhutto invited about 5,000 fundamentalist Afghan Pashtuns to come to Pakistan. Bhutto armed and trained them, and sent them back to fight against Daoud in Afghanistan. "Six years before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan," Weaver writes, "the mujahideen had been born." There is also a strong argument to be made, Weaver later shows, that Zia, the CIA, and the ISI turned what would have been a nationalist struggle into a holy war. The same can be said of Kashmir today.

"Pakistan" is full of similarly surprising analysis that make even regular watchers of Central and South Asia want to consider things in a different light. Some of the information Weaver chooses in forming her narrative is perhaps common knowledge among people familiar with the region, but she fits the pieces together in a way that makes the greater puzzle far more thought-provoking and comprehensive.

Weaver also offers her readers exclusive glimpses into the enigmatic life of Benazir Bhutto, and interesting vignettes from the special relationship Pakistan has developed with Saudi Arabia. Weaver describes in droll detail how members of the royal family and elites from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, and Bahrain arrive in Pakistan each winter to hunt the houbara bustard, an endangered desert bird, with falcons. The sheikhs pay "between $10 and $20 million for a typical royal hunt," she reports, and later eat the birds for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities.

Weaver's book does not end on a tidy note. She analyzes the state of Al Qaeda, which looks more amorphous than ever before, more inspired by bin Laden than under his direction. One Islamic source considers bin Laden as much a hero as Abraham Lincoln, while a State Department official tells Weaver that Al Qaeda is more like a clearinghouse of logistical support than a central organization sending out orders for mayhem.

Most of Al Qaeda's leaders are still at large, and President Pervez Musharraf rejects reports that they and wanted Taliban fugitives have settled in Pakistan. The general who seized power in 1999 stands torn between a public that is swinging towards pro-Taliban Islamic parties and a military that is not pleased with the amount of room he has given to American forces.

Looking through Weaver's window, the war is not nearly over. Its guerrillas are just regrouping. Afghanistan may be prelude to a more volatile mix next door.

* Ilene R. Prusher writes for the Monitor from Istanbul.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Introduction based on experience, December 29, 2003

By	David "dtstrange" (Pleasant Hill, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pakistan: Deep Inside the World's Most Frightening State (Paperback)

Much has been written about Pakistan since September 11th. But as Ms. Weaver points out in her wonderful book about the only Islamic Republic in the world, much harm could have been avoided if only we were more aware of this country and its problems BEFORE the terrorist attacks. Weaver's experiences as a journalist in this country form the basis and the strength of this book. Having covered this country for two decades, she provides a depth of experience in tracing the recent social and political ills of this nation. Her basic thesis is simple and seems chillingly accurate given current events. She convincingly states the case that U.S. foreign policy set up the country for much of its woes by at first supporting Islamic violent jihad in Afghanistan in the 80's, then abandoning the country completely after the Soviets withdrew and the Cold War ended. While it would be unfair not to assign some responsibility for their current predicament on the Pakistanis themselves, especially their failure to achieve economic growth and political stability, Ms. Weaver's writings on how the situation in Afghanistan destabilized Pakistan to the point where it is now practically as ungovernable as its neighbor is well taken.

Of course, other nations in the region can share the blame for this as well. The chapters on rich Gulf Arab states and the conflict with India in Kashmir are particularly revealing to see how this country has been neglected by other muslim nations and neglected by the United Nations which has been horribly inept in dealing with Kashmir problem. (One can make a convincing argument that Kashmir is the U.N's greatest failure, but that's for another book). Also, the chapter on the Saudi Bird Hunting parties should be read by anyone with an interest in the Middle East.

I heartily recommend this book for anyone traveling to Pakistan, and wishes to learn a bit about this country prior to their visit. It's very well written and succinct. Overall an excellent read.