The Rise and Fall of Al-QaedaIn this concise and fascinating book, Fawaz A. Gerges argues that Al-Qaeda has degenerated into a fractured, marginal body kept alive largely by the self-serving anti-terrorist bureaucracy it helped to spawn. In The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda, Gerges, a public intellectual known widely for his expertise on radical ideologies, including jihadism, argues that the Western powers have become mired in a "terrorism narrative," stemming from the mistaken belief that America is in danger of a devastating attack by a crippled al-Qaeda. To explain why al-Qaeda is no longer a threat, he provides a briskly written history of the organization, showing its emergence from the disintegrating local jihadist movements of the mid-1990s-not just the Afghan resistance of the 1980s, as many believe-in "a desperate effort to rescue a sinking ship by altering its course." During this period, Gerges interviewed many jihadis, gaining a first-hand view of the movement that bin Laden tried to reshape by internationalizing it. Gerges reveals that transnational jihad has attracted but a small minority within the Arab world and possesses no viable social and popular base. Furthermore, he shows that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were a major miscalculation--no "river" of fighters flooded from Arab countries to defend al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, as bin Laden expected. The democratic revolutions that swept the Middle East in early 2011 show that al-Qaeda today is a non-entity which exercises no influence over Arabs' political life. Gerges shows that there is a link between the new phenomenon of homegrown extremism in Western societies and the war on terror, particularly in Afghanistan-Pakistan, and that homegrown terror exposes the structural weakness, not strength, of bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Gerges concludes that the movement has splintered into feuding factions, neutralizing itself more effectively than any Predator drone. Forceful, incisive, and written with extensive inside knowledge, this book will alter the debate on global terrorism. |
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Abu alWalid Afghan Arabs Afghanistan alGamaa alHayat allies alQaeda American antiAmerican AQAP Awlaki Azzam bomber civilians counterterrorism country’s December Derbala domestic jihadis drone attacks Egypt Egyptian enemy extremists Fadl fight fighters force Global groups homegrown Ibid ideology intelligence interviews Iraq Islamist jihadist jihadist movement Khalid Khalid Sheikh Mohammed killing Laden and Zawahiri leaders leadership lieutenants Middle East militants military million Mohammed Mohamud mujahideen Mullah Omar Muslim world national security November Obama administration officials operational organization Osama bin Laden Pakistan Pakistani Taliban Palestinian Pashtun percent plot political President Obama Qaeda Qutb Qutb’s radical recruits regime religious Saleh Saudi Arabia senior September 11 September 2010 Shahzad Shiites socalled Soviet strategy Sudan suicide bombings tactics Taliban Tanzim Tanzim alJihad targets terrorism narrative terrorist theological threat told transnational jihad tribal tribes troops umma United War on Terror Washington Post West Western Wikileaks Yemen York young Muslims Zarqawi