Allah's Torch
A Report from Behind the Scenes in Asia's War on Terror
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- $0.99
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Publisher Description
Long before September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda forces were already zeroing in on Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic nation. This giant archipelago, with dense jungles and unpatrolled coastlines, can conceal endless hiding places. In a first-rate reporting adventure, journalist and filmmaker Tracy Dahlby takes us into this dangerous terrain and sheds new light on the epidemic of chaos now threatening our international community.
The adventure begins one night when Dahlby finds himself on board an Indonesian passenger ship along with 600 Islamic warriors on an anti-Christian jihad. Dahlby introduces us to Koran-thumping preachers, hardened holy warriors and fresh-faced recruits, police investigators, military commandos and spies, while trying to make sense of the terror that threatens to engulf the region.
Based on reporting from both before and after September 11, Allah’s Torch is an action-packed and thought-provoking narrative that will enable readers to see the face of Islamic terror more clearly and assess the threat for themselves.
Tracy Dahlby lived for thirteen years in Asia, where he served as Tokyo bureau chief for Newsweek and the Washington Post, and covered events throughout the region. He has written on Asia for National Geographic magazine, and is the winner of major awards for print journalism and documentary filmmaking.
“A portrait of a religion under change, which can be as thoughtful and as insightful as it is sometimes irreverent.” - Jakarta Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vast, vital and incredibly diverse economically, socially, ethnically and religiously, the Republic of Indonesia has been hit hard by successive dictatorships, the East Asian recession and religious militants. Dahlby, former Newsweek and Washington Post bureau chief, begins his journalistic account of his pre- and post-9/11 travels there with a study of religious conflict in the Moluccas in 1999. A reluctant interisland passenger along with several hundred Islamic jihadis, he meets a Moluccan elder statesman and his savvy daughter. On a later trip, he finds the country suffering from the aftereffects of 9/11 and American pressure to deal with what is inaccurately perceived as a monolithic jihadist movement Indonesia's Islam, and its militant factions, are no more monolithic than any other aspect of the country. While he gives short history lessons (on Indonesia's Dutch colonial period, for instance) and cuts to larger current political debates during his journeys, Dahlby stays closer to his own feelings and the logistics of his trips than many readers will want: his style is sometimes positively chatty; he draws on his own politics freely in interpreting his experiences. Yet the writing has a strong visual quality and vividly drawn players given the desperate shortage of popular material on Indonesia, this title helps fill the information gap.
