Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam [Paperback]

A must-read ... Burke's book is the one that will last. It's a triumph (Giles Foden Guardian )

The most reliable and perceptive guide to the rise of militant Islam yet published (William Dalrymple Observer )

Indispensable (John Gray New Statesman )

"He has given us an indispensable guide to the multidimensional reality of Al-Qaeda" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"...it should be compulsory reading for Rumsfeld and his clique". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"He has given us an indispensable guide to the multidimensional reality of Al-Qaeda". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

To most in the West, 'al-Qaeda' is seen as a byword for terror: a deadly, highly organised fanatical group masterminded by Osama bin Laden. But does this tell the whole truth?

Prize-winning journalist Jason Burke has spent a decade reporting from the heart of the Middle East and gaining unprecedented access to the world of radical Islam. Now, drawing on his frontline experience of recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan, on secret documents and astonishing interviews with intelligence officers, militants, mujahideen commanders and bin Laden's associates, he reveals the full story of al-Qaeda - and demolishes the myths that underpin the 'war on terror'.

Burke demonstrates that in fact 'al-Qaeda' is merely a convenient label applied by the West to a far broader - and thus more dangerous - phenomenon of Islamic militancy, and shows how eradicating a single figure or group will do nothing to combat terrorism. Only by understanding the true, complex nature of al-Qaeda, he argues, can we address the real issues surrounding our security today.

"Fascinating....packed full with totally new material". Gilles Kepel, author of Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam

"A book which vastly increases our understanding of the al-Qaeda phenomenon. Burke writes with admirable lucidity and the benefit of his frontline reporting and deep research". Peter Bergen, author of Holy War

"Jason Burke has undertaken an impressive amount of both desk and field research to challenge the myth of al-Qaeda as a monolith orchestrating terrorist activity world-wide". Peter Marsden, author of the Taliban:War and Religion in Afghanistan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

On a hot summer's day in 1996 a plane carrying Osama bin Laden and a few friends and family landed just outside the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The Saudi-born Islamic activist had little equipment, few followers and minimal local support. Yet within five years he had built an organization that was to carry out the most shocking and devastating terrorist attack in history. In Arabic, the term "Al-Qaeda" is an abstract noun meaning resource, network or base. In the West, it symbolizes a great threat to global security. Though its Afghan training camps have now been reduced to dust, no one believes that al-Qaeda was destroyed with them. But what is al-Qaeda? Is it a disciplined, motivated, structured terrorist organization led by a single criminal mastermind or no more than an idea, a language in which angry young Muslim men can articulate their rage? Bin Laden's aim to provoke conflict between militant Islam and the West appears closer to fulfilment than ever!
. But is al-Qaeda the catalyst of this conflict, or merely a symbol of it? This is an investigation of the al-Qaeda phenomenon by a recognized expert on the subject. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Jason Burke is the prize-winning Chief Reporter for the Observer. He has covered the Middle East and Southwest Asia for a decade, and saw many of the key events described in this book at first hand.