Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia |
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| Title: | Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia |
| Author: | Ahmed Rashid |
| Publisher: | Yale University Press |
| Type: | Book / Hardcover |
| Publication Date: | 25 January, 2002 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 9694023610 / 9780300093452 |
| List Price: | $25.00 |
| Amazon Price: | $25.00 |
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
The terrorist attacks of September 11th have turned the world's attention to areas of the globe about which we know very little. Ahmed Rashid, who explored Afghanistan's Taliban regime in a previous work, here turns his skills as an investigative journalist to the five Central Asian republics adjacent to Afghanistan. Central Asia is coming to play a vital strategic role in the war on terrorism, but the region also poses new threats to global security. The five Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - were part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Under Soviet rule, Islam was brutally suppressed, and that intolerance has continued under the post-Soviet regimes. Religious repression, political corruption, and the region's extreme poverty (unemployment rates exceed 80 percent in some areas) have created a fertile climate for militant Islamic fundamentalism. Often funded and trained by such organizations as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban, guerrilla movements like the IMU (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) have recruited a staggering number of members across the region and threaten to topple the governments of all five nations. Based on research and numerous interviews, this text explains the roots of militant rage in Central Asia, describes the goals and activities of these militant organisations, and suggests ways in which this threat could be neutralised by diplomatic and economic intervention. Rich in both cultural heritage and natural resources - including massive oil reservoirs - Central Asia remains desperately poor and frighteningly volatile. In tracing the history of Central Asia and explaining the current political climate, Rashid demonstrates that it is a region we ignore at our peril.
Amazon.com Review
In the aftermath of September 11, as Americans tried to figure out what they were up against, many of them turned to Ahmed Rashid's masterful book Taliban, the single best account of Afghanistan's murderous regime. With Jihad, Rashid offers an indispensable companion volume on five of Afghanistan's neighbors--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--and "the New Great Game" about to be waged over them between China, Russia, and the United States. "The vast, empty landscape dotted with oases of vibrant populations and political ferment, sitting on the world's last great untapped natural energy reserves, is almost as unknown to Westerners as it was to Europeans in the Middle Ages," writes Rashid, a Pakistani journalist with extensive experience reporting from the region. He describes the area's "growing instability," which he credits to a strain of militant Islam just like the form propagated by the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. One of the most interesting parts of Jihad concerns Juma Namangani, a shadowy rebel leader in Uzbekistan who has "cultivated an air of mystery that [is] even more extreme than that of the secretive [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar." Rashid concludes that radical Islam will remain popular in Central Asia as long as the governments there are oppressive. We ignore this part of the world at our peril, and there is no better guide to it than Rashid. --John Miller
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