by Raziqueh Hussain
Khaleej Times
The story of Osama bin Laden is now over, so how did authors record the mystery behind the hidden terrorist? Raziqueh Hussain finds out
It’s a fact that the death of a famous — or infamous — person spikes sales of books about that individual and often bumps books onto bestseller lists. Now, there’s a scramble to get books out there on Osama bin Laden, after he was killed by a Navy SEALs unit on April 30 this year. While the details of the operation are still sketchy, publishers are reaping the rewards of this news story.
Within two weeks of bin Laden’s death, an e-book of essays Beyond Bin Laden: America and the future of terror was published, the first in an onslaught of books about the Al Qaeda leader and the hunt to find him.
Post 9/11, there have been numerous books written on bin Laden that attempt to explain him, his organisation, and his actions.
Author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America an Al Qaeda (already out in e-book format) and The Osama bin Laden I know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda’s Leader Peter L Bergen, a national security analyst for CNN, has sealed the deal for Manhunt which will explore the search for bin Laden.
“It is basically an account about the hunt for bin Laden. It’s an attempt to tell the story in as much detail as possible, and obviously it’s a story that there is a great deal of interest in around the world,” says the author who met bin Laden personally in Tora Bora in 1997 and says he “presented himself as a soft-spoken cleric, rather than as the firebreathing leader of a global terrorist organisation.”
The Al Qaeda Reader presents documents and texts that trace the origin, history and evolution of the ideas concocted by Al Qaeda leaders Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden. Raymond Ibrahim relates the unsettling goals of Al Qaeda, and also includes their propagandist speeches. “Being immensely interested in groups like Al Qaeda, I soon discovered various tracts written by the group — especially Ayman Zawahiri, now its leader — that had never been translated into English, and I thought it would be good to do so,” says the associate director of the Middle East Forum in the US.
The research for his book began with Al Qaeda’s doctrinal arguments. “You see, just a couple of years earlier, I had finished writing my MA thesis in History on Islam’s early conquests. So when I started reading how Al Qaeda was also referring to these conquests, making the same arguments and using the same rationale as the early Muslims — the ‘Salafs,’ I was intrigued. I also found Al Qaeda’s dual approach — saying one thing to Western people (“you are the unjust aggressors”) and another to Muslims (“we must subdue the West because it is the infidel”) — of interest,” he adds. Ibrahim doesn’t think that the war is over. “Not really. Whenever a jihadist is killed — including leaders like bin Laden — I like to point out that jihadists are not the cause of hostilities; they are symptoms of a much greater cause. Individually killing them off is like a doctor temporarily treating a sick patient’s symptoms without eliminating the cause of sickness.”
He points out that there were many myths surrounding the man. “I have seen many writings and whole books that spend much time on bin Laden’s character — from those that try to portray him as a sexually depraved deviant and hypocrite, to those that try to ‘psychoanalyse’ him (suggesting, for example, that he had “daddy issues”) — none of which I find compelling. The greatest myth to me centring around bin Laden is the one that maintains he is the beginning and end of conflict,” he notes.
Growing Up bin Laden tells the story of a young girl Najwa who married her gentle and kindly first-cousin Osama, enjoying a happy early marriage with the groom of her choice. But world events thrust her husband into a frenzy of militant activities, altering his once pleasing behaviour in the process. “Although everyone thought that at some time Osama would be captured by the US military, the family did not believe that he would be killed. They are asking three questions: When Osama did not resist, why wasn’t he arrested? After being killed, why didn’t the family get to identify him? Why was he buried at sea when that is against their Islamic beliefs?” writes Jean Sasson, the author, on her blog. “I’ve been reading many current articles on the bin Laden drama. It’s impossible not to compare what I’m reading to what was revealed to me by Omar and Najwa when I was gathering their memories to write their personal accounts of living with Osama. Don’t assume that because Amal was the wife with him in Pakistan that she was the favourite. Believe me when I say that he would have preferred Najwa by his side,” reveals the American author who has written extensive books on women in the Middle-East.
Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University and editor of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden, Bruce B Lawrence thinks the recent uprisings are a way forward and not the death of the Al Qaeda chief. “What are we to make of the legacy of bin Laden in the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring? With new governments emerging in Tunisia and Egypt, possibly in Libya or Yemen, but not likely in either Syria or Bahrain, it is tempting to say that a better way forward for the Arab/Muslim world is about to emerge, and that the physical death of OBL will also augur the symbolic death of the violence that he defined,” he says, adding, “One can dare to hope that the uptick of the Arab spring, which began before bin Laden was killed, may produce not a summer of discontent but a fall of hope, followed by a winter of reform and renewal.”
Rohan Gunaratna’s interest in Al Qaeda began with a series of visits to Pakistan in 1993. The Sri Lankan native has interviewed more than 200 Al Qaeda members and has written six books on the armed conflict.
Inside Al Qaeda, Global Network of Terror is one of the comprehensive books coming from the sub-continent. “Osama was like a politician — he built friendships with threat groups across the world. Zawahiri is not as charismatic as Osama. He is more dogmatic and rigid in his thinking,” says the Singapore-based associate professor at The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS).
Bin Laden’s death may have raised the sale of books on him in the West but bookstores in the UAE find that there are no takers for them. Jashanmal bookstore has merely three books on bin Laden and a saleswoman confirms that demand is almost nil for these books. “No, we haven’t got any readers who have asked for bin Laden’s book even after his death,” says one from the Mall of the Emirates, Dubai store.
In Abu Dhabi’s Al Wahda Mall, Magrudy’s too didn’t have any, save for one book on the man. “If someone wants we can get in a book but as of now there’s no demand,” says the salesman.
“We are already bombarded with so much news about him. I don’t think I would want to re-read all of it again in 2,500-odd pages. We are not even sure if he died now or five years back due to kidney failure!” says Emirati student Shuhaib Abdullah, while purchasing some management books at Magrudy’s. His friend Khaled A adds, “But if I were to read a book, I would prefer reading a history text on bin Laden to view how his legacy would be recorded. After all, bin Laden defined ‘war’ and ‘terror’ for our generation.”
Leave a Reply