Overview

Abu Mus'ab al-Suri remains the foremost theoretician in the global jihadist movement today, despite his capture in Pakistan in late 2005. After having participated in the founding of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 1988, al-Suri, whose real name is Mustafa Sethmarian Nasar, trained a whole generation of young jihadis at his camps in Afghanistan. When he moved back to Spain in the early 1990s, al-Suri took part in establishing Al-Qaeda networks in Europe. In the mid-1990s, he rose to prominence in jihadi circles as editor of the London-based bulletin of the Algerian Groupe Islamique Armee, the most deadly Islamist terrorist group operating in Europe at the time. Al-Suri later formed his own media centre and training camp in Taleban-ruled Afghanistan, to which he returned in 1998. Building on his extensive military experience from the Syrian Islamist insurgency in the early 1980s, he contributed decisively to formulating Al-Qaeda's global warfare strategy. Throughout his writings there is a desire to learn from past mistakes and rectify the course of the jihadi movement. His 1,600 page work, 'The Global Islamic Resistance Call', outlines a broad strategy for the coming generation of Al-Qaeda, with a keen eye for the practical implementation of jihadi guerrilla warfare theories.

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9780199326457

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<br> Al-Suri ha'Al-Suri has been read at West Point, profiled by Lawrence Wright in The New Yorker, heralded by Newsweek as the 'Francis Fukuyama of al Qaida' and by CNN as 'the most dangerous terrorist you've never heard of'....One of the striking things we learn from Lia's book is how often Al Qaida's adversaries threw it a lifeline.' --London Review of Books<p><br> This biography by Brynjar Lia, a Norwegian expert on the subject, is a welcome addition to a crowded field of books on Islamist extremism....Ginger-haired and married to a Spaniard, Mr al-Suri went by several aliases, including El Espanol and El Rubio (the blond one). He was little known outside Islamist circles until the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 when Spanish investigators named him as a possible ideological influence, if not the actual mastermind. --The Economist<p><br> A compelling and meticulously researched biography of one of the most influential strategists and thinkers in Islamist circles. Abu Mus'ab al-Suri may not be a household name in the West, but his importance as a theorist, organizer and ideologue is difficult to overstate. For those seeking to understand Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, author Brynjar Lia's work is critical reading and highly illuminating. --Craig Whitlock, Berlin Bureau Chief, The Washington Post<p><br>

Author Information

Brynjar Lia is a research professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). He is the author of several books on Islamism and terrorism, including Globalisation and the Future of Terrorism and A Police Force without a State: A History of the Palestinian Security Forces in the West Bank and Gaza.

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