Product Description

Al Qaida was unable to realize its lethal potential until it found sanctuary in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden fled after being expelled from Sudan. But why was the network's sanctuary not attacked before September 2001, especially after the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998? Abou Zahab and Roy argue that the Taliban was part of a much wider radical Islamist network in the region, whose true center was Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Al Qaida, the Taliban, the Pakistani Deobandis -- all of these groups are based in Pakistan, which continues to serve as the regional hub for Islamist movements and their terrorist offshoots.

This indispensable book investigates and explains the almost twenty-five-year gestation of these interlinked radical Islamist networks of Pakistan, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, out of which Al Qaida emerged. Taking into account the networks'divergent histories and doctrinal rifts, the authors lay bare the political contingencies that enabled these disparate Islamist movements to coordinate with the aim of attacking what became their common adversary: the United States.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453190 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-22
• Released on: 2007-01-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 92 pages

Review

"Tackling historical complexities and scholarly references to illuminate cultural and religious motivations, Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy create a blow-by-blow account of jihadist movements and their relationship with American and secular power." -- Middle East Journal

"This work is a gold mine for insights into the little-understood world of Islamist ideologies." -- Caleb M. Bartley, University of Reading, Comparative Strategy

"[Islamist Networks is] interested not in grand ideas but in the details of Al-Qaeda's recruitment and support networks Â… [using] biographies of individual terrorists and obscure Al-Qaeda-linked groups to explain the movement's evolving structure. By this path the authors challenge some poorly examined assumptions of familiar public debates." -- Steve Coll, Washington Post Book World

"This excellent study will serve as a valuable reference book to those interested in radical Islamic Movements... Highly recommended." -- Choice

About the Author

Mariam Abou Zahab is a researcher affiliated with the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI) and a lecturer at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), both in Paris.

Olivier Roy is a world authority on Islam and politics. His books include Globalized Islam (Columbia University Press) and The Failure of Political Islam.

Customer Reviews

A useful primer on informal networks in the region
If you want to understand contemporary Islamism, you have to grasp the role of informal networks. For some analysts, simple theology suffices, for others, international linkages dominate. Few academics have tackled the ways in which human relationships, as much as ideological sympathies, underpin Islamism in South Asia. Whether illustrated by familial lines of succession among selected madrasah (Islamic school) principals, the strong friendships fostered by joint participation in Tablighi Jamaat missions, or the increasingly networked sharing of fatwas (Islamic legal pronouncements) through the internet, social connections are critical. This short but important study remains one of the best examples of social scientists investigating the provenance and vitality of informal networks in the context of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia and Kashmir. Given this, Mariam Abou Zahab and Oliver Roy's book remains deeply relevant for academics and policymakers, despite being a 2004 translation of a 2002 French manuscript. (For more, see Contemporary South Asia - this review is an extract of a longer piece.)