Al Qaeda in Its Own Words

* Contents * Contributors * Note on the Translation * general introduction: Al Qaeda, the Essentials <cite>Gilles Kepel Part I: Osama Bin Laden * Introduction: Osama Bin Laden, the Iconic Orator <cite>Omar Saghi * The Companions Den (Excerpts) * Declaration of Jihad against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries (Excerpts) * Interview with CNN (Excerpts) * World Islamic Front Statement Urging Jihad against Jews and Crusaders * Interview with Al-Jazeera (Excerpts) * Tactical Recommendations (Excerpts) * Second Letter to the Muslims of Iraq * Message to the American People Part II: Abdallah Azzam * Introduction: Abdallah Azzam, the Imam of Jihad <cite>Thomas Hegghammer * The Defense of Muslim Territories Constitutes the First Individual Duty (Excerpts) * Join the Caravan (Excerpts) * Morals and Jurisprudence of Jihad (Excerpts) * To the Young Muslims of the United States (Excerpts) * The Solid Base (Excerpts) Part III: Ayman Al-Zawahiri * Introduction: Ayman al-Zawahiri, Veteran of Jihad <cite>Stephane Lacroix * Bitter Harvest: Sixty Years of the Muslim Brotherhood (Excerpts) * Advice to the Community to Reject the Fatwa of Sheikh Bin Baz Authorizing Parliamentary Representation (Excerpts) * Knights under the Prophet's Banner (Excerpts) * Loyalty and Separation: Changing an Article of Faith and Losing Sight of Reality (Excerpts) Part IV: Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi * Introduction: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jihad in "Mesopotamia" <cite>Jean-Pierre Milelli * Letter to Bin Laden and Zawahiri (Excerpts) * Notes * Index

Gilles Kepel is Professor and Chair of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. Jean-Pierre Milelli is lecturer in Arabic at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris. Stephane Lacroix is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po, Paris.

With this book, Kepel and Milelli, professors at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris, have produced a seminal study of al-Qaeda, introducing the key texts and figures inspiring this still shadowy movement...Kepel and Milelli compellingly present the online texts that serve as al-Qaeda's "doctrine," dissecting the discourse and identifying the images and rhetoric al-Qaeda depends upon. This view of al-Qaeda from within presents sobering evidence of the threat al-Qaeda poses and is an indispensable read. Publishers Weekly 20080211 Despite all the political and popular attention that it has received in the last six years, Al Qaeda's essential worldview still remains largely unexplained. Written statements and television appearances by its leaders provide an occasional glimpse. This book is an incisive insight into the intellectual and discursive world of Al Qaeda that might just survive the lifetime of its present leadership. To reveal its inner workings, Gilles Kepel and his collaborators have collected and annotated key texts of the major figures from whom the movement has drawn its beliefs--Azzabdallah Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Businessworld 20071228 Impeccably researched and richly detailed...[Al Qaeda in Its Own Words] provides readers with some insight into and understanding of the theology and doctrine that forged al-Qa'ida and the rationale that has driven its global terror campaign for almost two decades...[The] collection of jihadist excerpts and extant commentary offers fascinating views of the personal motivations and historical influences that shaped bin Laden...A volume indispensable to a better understanding of the group's world view. Kepel's precise and brilliantly written introduction to the writings and statements, of bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abdallah Azzam and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, immediately articulates the difference between the tactic of terrorism (so much the focus of Western democracies'