Gilles Kepel

The interesting thesis of Kepel is not the success, but rather the failure of, jihadist Islam. Kepel explains in a straightforward manner how political Islam has failed and jihadistic efforts are an indication of how poorly jihad has fared. He is not claiming that jihad is not deadly, a threat, or will not sustain itself over the long term but it has tried and been found wanting.

The seeds of the destructing of jihad are found in the phenomenon itself. Kepel writes: 'Paradoxically, the show more Islamist experience itself has produced some of the conditions that have led to its own obsolescence. In the ranks of veiled female militants demanding application of the Sharia we see, in many cases, the first generation of women to speak in public outside their homes and beyond their domestic role' (p. 13).

By inference, the real challenge to Western democracies is not jihad, but sharia, which is more insidious and the West, consider Eurabia for example, has no in-built defense against an enemy that implodes Western liberties from within. show less

I hoped to get some deeper understanding of Al Qaeda and its leadership from a study of material actually written by themselves rather than filtered through news media or analysts. Al Qaeda In Its Own Words somewhat met this goal, but was ultimately unsatisfying for me. Frankly, the material presented was pretty shallow. The editors imply that this is so because the thinking behind the material is pretty shallow, and I can believe it. It may be that the material the editors have to work with show more is in itself ultimately unsatisfying.

The introductory material on each of the authors was a decent set of histories, but all of the info could be found in more detail in other sources. The end notes were good, and I highly recommend they be read as the reader proceeds through the text.

What would have made this book better? I'm not sure. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps the book would have been better if the introductory material also included discussion of the context and some interpretation of the presented material. I suspect the ideas presented here are not mainstream Islam, and so perhaps counterpoint arguments should have been presented. In the end, it seemed like something more needed to be added to round out the work. show less

The author of this book is French, so he provides an interesting perspective on the past 8 years or so. Of interest in the book, his analysis of the propaganda wars of various factions within Islamic jihadist, especially in Iraq. But also more broadly among groups aligned variously with Palestinians and Iran--especially Hezbollah and Hamas. He also analyzes the events with Muslim populations in London, Netherlands, Denmark, France during the same period. Of course, France comes out looking show more the best. But given all of the anti-French rhetoric in the states over the past few years, this is definitely an interesting perspective. Thoughtful, mostly interesting book. show less

This has one of the best accounts of how the US neoconservatues who got us into the war in Iraq first came together in "think tanks" in Washington and finally became part of the George W. Bush administration. It also makes the point that the Muslim world did not understand how this had happened.