Gilles Kepel is Professor of Middle East Studies, and Jean-Pierre Milelli is lecturer in Arabic, at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris.
Impeccably researched and richly detailed...["Al Qaeda in Its Own
Words"] provides readers with some insight into and understanding
of the theology and doctrine that forged al-Qa'ida and the
rationale that has driven its global terror campaign for almost two
decades...[The] collection of jihadist excerpts and extant
commentary offers fascinating views of the personal motivations and
historical influences that shaped bin Laden...A volume
indispensable to a better understanding of the group's world view.
Kepel's precise and brilliantly written introduction to the
writings and statements, of bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abdallah
Azzam and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, immediately articulates the
difference between the tactic of terrorism (so much the focus of
Western democracies' war on terror) and al-Qa'ida's overarching
doctrine as an organization that seeks to reshape the world in its
own image.--Peter Khalil"The Australian" (09/03/2008)
Despite all the political and popular attention that it has
received in the last six years, Al Qaeda's essential worldview
still remains largely unexplained. Written statements and
television appearances by its leaders provide an occasional
glimpse. This book is an incisive insight into the intellectual and
discursive world of Al Qaeda that might just survive the lifetime
of its present leadership. To reveal its inner workings, Gilles
Kepel and his collaborators have collected and annotated key texts
of the major figures from whom the movement has drawn its
beliefs--Azzabdallah Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden, and
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
With this book, Kepel and Milelli, professors at the Institute for
Political Studies in Paris, have produced a seminal study of
al-Qaeda, introducing the key texts and figures inspiring this
still shadowy movement...Kepel and Milelli compellingly present the
online texts that serve as al-Qaeda's "doctrine," dissecting the
discourse and identifying the images and rhetoric al-Qaeda depends
upon. This view of al-Qaeda from within presents sobering evidence
of the threat al-Qaeda poses and is an indispensable read.
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