Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection

by Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy

Book Overview

Al Qaida was unable to realize its lethal potential until it found sanctuary in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden fled after being expelled from Sudan. But why was the network's sanctuary not attacked before September 2001, especially after the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998? Abou Zahab and Roy argue that the Taliban was part of a much wider radical Islamist network in the region, whose true center was Pakistan, not...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231133650
• ISBN13: 9780231133654
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

A useful primer on informal networks in the region

If you want to understand contemporary Islamism, you have to grasp the role of informal networks. For some analysts, simple theology suffices, for others, international linkages dominate. Few academics have tackled the ways in which human relationships, as much as ideological sympathies, underpin Islamism in South Asia. Whether illustrated by familial lines of succession among selected madrasah (Islamic school) principals, the strong friendships fostered by joint participation in Tablighi Jamaat missions, or the increasingly networked sharing of fatwas (Islamic legal pronouncements) through the internet, social connections are critical. This short but important study remains one of the best examples of social scientists investigating the provenance and vitality of informal networks in the context of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia and Kashmir. Given this, Mariam Abou Zahab and Oliver Roy's book remains deeply relevant for academics and policymakers, despite being a 2004 translation of a 2002 French manuscript. (For more, see Contemporary South Asia - this review is an extract of a longer piece.)