The Al Qaeda Reader
Raymond Ibrahim, The Al Qaeda Reader (Broadway Books, 2007)
Summary: A collection of translated and annotated writings and speeches of al Qaeda's "thought leaders." A touch dated, preceding the rise of the Islamic State (and Osama bin Laden's death) by several years. A serious exploration of al Qaeda's belief system, especially the four theology texts discovered by the author at the Library of Congress and translated for the first time.
Key Quote: "Largely absent from the Western hemisphere, however, are al-Qaeda’s theological treatises, which justify and glorify violence and hatred toward the West within an Islamic framework. Written for Muslim audiences, they are rarely translated into English or disseminated to a non-Muslim public. This is unfortunate, since they reveal much more about al-Qaeda's ideology than the more famous political speeches." - p. 2
Bottom Line: Read this book if you want to understand al Qaeda as an intellectual argument.
