The Audacious Ascetic: What the Bin Laden Tapes Reveal About Al-qa'ida - Couverture rigide

Miller, Professor Of Religious Studies Flagg

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0190264365 ISBN 13 : 9780190264369

Editeur : Oxford University Press, USA, 2015

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

In late 2002, over 1500 audiotapes were discovered in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in a house once occupied by Osama bin Laden. The Audacious Ascetic is the first book to explore this extraordinary archive. It details how Islamic cultural, legal, theological and linguistic vocabularies shaped militants' understandings of al-Qa'ida, and, more controversially, challenges the notion that the group's original adversary was America and the 'far enemy'. Miller argues that Western security agencies' 'management' of Bin Laden's growing reputation went awry. When magnified through global media coverage, narratives of al-Qa'ida's coherence were exploited by Osama and his militant supporters for their own ends. Focusing on over a dozen previously unpublished speeches by Bin Laden as well as on discussions by top al-Qa'ida leaders and Arab- Afghans, Miller chronicles the Saudi radical's evolving relationship with a host of Muslim insurgencies that found his stripe of asceticism (zuhd) tactically useful, especially when circulated via audiotape. These recordings also reveal militants' disenchantment when Bin Laden, marginalised through the '90s, began pandering to Western television networks in his attempt to direct heterodox Islamist armed struggles against America. Such audio evidence exposes al-Qa'ida's lack of coordination before 9-11 and invites scrutiny of dominant narratives of Western law enforcement, intelligence and terrorism analysts.

Revue de presse :

'[Miller] does well in contextualising the often heavy-going material with the more interesting details of bin Laden s life and has undeniably added to our understanding of the man.' --The Times

'Selectively transcribed and interpreted ... [the tapes] allow us to eavesdrop on Bin Laden during the 1990s as he rallied his followers, first to upbraid Islamic renegades in Saudi Arabia, then to prepare an assault on infidel America.' --The Guardian

'The story of how [Bin Laden] came to be the west s ultimate ascetic adversary and how the US expanded its security footprint into the Islamic world, needs to be told. Miller has succeeded.' --Prospect

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press, USA
• Date d'édition: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0190264365
• ISBN 13: 9780190264369
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 320