terror trail

In the shadow of swords: on the trail of terrorism from Afghanistan to Australia. Sally Neighbour, 2004, HarperCollins.
This book agitates as well as educating. We’re left with some awkward questions – how could JI have gone undetected for so long? How do we get the Indonesians to take the threat seriously? Why does the extreme interpretation of jihad appeal to such a diversity of Moslems (even if they’re few in number)? Is there something integral to Islam that we should worry about? What about the effect of our foreign policy, and more importantly that of our big beefy ally, on the rhetoric and actions of our enemies? Can we find a way to be placatory without being weak? We could certainly do a helluva lot better than we’re doing now.
Neighbour here tells a tale of individuals, all with different interpretations of and varying commitments to jihad. She humanises them far more than they’re prepared to humanise us, it seems. Even the three notorious brothers, Muklas, Amrozi and Ali Imron, emerge as distinctive personae, conforming to well-known patterns of sibling development, with Muklas, the eldest, as the responsible leader-figure, hardline all the way, followed by Amrozi, irresponsible and unsettled, before finally ‘growing up’ into a full-blown terrorist, with all the zeal of the recent convert, and Ali Imron, the baby of the family, struggling for the recognition and respect of his brothers, always with a me-too air, and stricken by conscience way too late. Then we have the softly spoken and outwardly gentle Abu Bakar Bashir, as ignorant of Western ways and values as the old Ayatollah Khomeini, and as thoughtlessly destructive. And for me probably the most intriguing/disturbing individual described here is the still-at-large Azahari Husin, a roguish former Norwood High School and Adelaide Uni student, who went on to become a high-flying academic in maths and statistics. He’s likely responsible for designing the Bali bomb, as well as the Marriott Hotel bomb.
A vastly diverse bunch, they all have in common a contempt for what they conceive to be Western values, and a macho delight in making big bangs. Coming soon to a cinema (or stadium or terminal, etc etc) near you.