I didn’t expect to like Looming Tower, but I started reading it at Barnes and Noble one night and had to buy it. It is well-written, but also extremely well researched. It gives a very human portrait of the whole jihadist movement, so you can really see where and how certain key figures went astray. It is definitely not a caricature of evil.

InshAllaah I’ll have something up soon. I’m trying to fight my natural inclination which can either be described as perfectionism or procrastination depending on how charitable one wants to be which makes me reluctant to put things up, always thinking somehow in my mind that “I’ll do it really properly but later” Instead, my hope is to start using the blog to get up some thoughts, ideas, responses I have to things (mostly books ’cause I’m not that social of a person) even if they are not in any type of polished form. That way, I can get some feedback and if nothing else won’t lose ideas or streams of thought the way I usually do when I don’t put them down in writing.

By the way, have you read Muslim Rebels by Jeffrey Kenney? I’m also working on that and it seems fascinating. It’s about Radical groups in Egypt, but it seems interesting in that the idea behind it is not so much to talk about the radicals or militants but talk about the way the concept of the Khawarij as an archetype dominates public discussion from both religious and political authorities and used as a way to prevent the societal issues which result in violent behavior from being addressed.

What’d you think of Looming Tower? Are you reluctant to pick up Coll’s piece because you’re reluctant to start another long book or just sick of reading about “militant Islam/Al-Qa’ida etc.”?

You might also enjoy his interview on Fresh Air.