In ‘Journey to the Jihadist’, Fawaz Gerges, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, provides extremely valuable insight into the mindset of Islamic jihadist. Or more correctly, make that plural ‘mindsets’ because the central message of Gerges work is that even among jihadists opinions vary widely as to correct principles, strategies, and tactics.

Gerges starts out with some background to the modern jihad movement and its founder Sayyid Qutb who matriculated at Stanford and Colorado State College of Education for two years in the 1940s. Qutb was appalled by the empty materialism and especially the sexual license he perceived. He returned to play an instrumental role in radicalizing the Muslim Brotherhood. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright has a more detailed consideration of Qutb.

Gerges, who was raised as Greek Orthodox in Lebanon, traces the development of the jihad through three generations starting with Kamal el-Said Habib. Kamal played a role in the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, but later forswore violence as means to Islamize society for political means. The second generation is represented by Osama bin Laden’s personal bodyguard Abu-Jandal . Gerges identifies the third generation as uneducated youth being radicalized by the American occupation of Iraq.

Gerges attempts to demonstrate that many if not most jihadists rejected bin Laden’s attack on the West, some for moral reasons, more because they viewed it an ill-advised assault on the world’s superpower. Much of the antipathy toward bin Laden flows, of course from Shiites. Gerges suggests that bin Laden and Al Qaeda were faring very poorly after 9-11 and the US rout of the Taliban, but that the US invasion of Iraq has almost universally enraged Muslims.

While Gerges’ book provides essential context and perspective it suffers from inadequate identification of his sources. His endnotes state that his main sources are interviews he conducted between 1990 and 2005. He also identifies printed interviews and books for each chapter. He chose not, however, to footnote his work so it is usually impossible to identify a source for particular statements. He states that he was unable to interview Abu-Jandal, but still freely quotes him. The book has a bit of a slapdash feel to it, especially in a late chapter discussing the British Muslims and the London bombings. Gerges also accepts exaggerated claims by Arab Afghans of their role in defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Despite these shortcomings, Gerges’ book provides much-needed perspective on the varying shades of even radical Islam and how the American occupation of Iraq is pushing more and more Muslims toward jihad against ‘the far enemy’ – the West in general and the US in particular. Highly recommended. ( )