The Al Qaeda reader

This book provides a scholarly resource to those wishing to better understand the ideology of al Qaeda. Unlike Kepel and Milelli and Bruce Lawrence’s edited collections, Ibrahim has arranged the texts into two parts. Part One addresses the theology of al Qaeda, and here it is telling that three of these more ideological statements are authored by Ayman al-Zawahiri and only one by bin Laden.  Part Two includes messages from al Qaeda to the world, particularly the West. Ibrahim points out the shift in style to accommodate the Western audience, which better understands more concise and emotional arguments than are found in the longer, denser statements written for Muslim audiences (the implication that ‘Muslims’ and ‘Westerners’ are mutually exclusive categories should not be unthinkingly accepted). The editor of this collection worked in Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress and this work reflects the wealth of primary material available at that institution.