Osama bin Laden: A War Against the West

Rating:
Summary: Outrageous
Review: A book designed to indoctrinate youngsters against Islam by using a notorious figure as the archetypal Muslim. Unfortunately, there is all too much of this type of hate literature published in the guise of legitimate scholarship. One would hope that people of good will would protest against this.

Rating:
Summary: Valuable Information.
Review: Elaine Landau's Osama bin Laden: A War Against the West could have been written for adults who want information without a lot of academic language; she does not water down her subject or simplify the language. However, she misses the mark when she makes assertions such as describing the Twin Towers as "a towering landmark that reflected the United States as its best." If she were more exact, she might have said it reflected Western Capitalism at its best.
Landau succeeds in presenting a well researched life of bin Laden using chronology -where he has lived, worked, his coming of age in his political position, and his development as a terrorist - to structure the book. She treats the subject fairly in the following ways: She explains the full meaning of Jihad and what it means to the majority of Muslims: a war within oneself to purify one's spirit. She presents bin Laden's jihad within a framework of his desire to have an Islamic Middle East free of Western control and influence. She defines what Western means in Fundamentalist Islamic terms: families in disarray, drug use, a society without morality, etc. Also, she examines the role of the United States in supporting the Fundamentalist cause in terms of money and arms. The United States supplied arms to Muslim fighters in Afghanistan because we viewed Russian as a larger threat. The CIA has a photograph from that war of Osama bin Laden holding a U.S. supplied Stinger-a heat seeking ground to air missile.
There are several telling photographs:
1.A man with a stack of radios confiscated by the Taliban.
2.A child by an army tank in Somalia (with a questionable caption: " Exploiting brutal unrest and famine in Somalia, bin laden sought to establish jihad, or holy war, in that country in an effort to expel Western Influence.
3.A protester in Pakistan with a poster of support for Bin Laden.
4.And several photographs of bin Laden.
There is a glossary, chapter notes, and a full index. I would suggest adding maps to show where the many countries are that bin Laden has either lived, visited, or impacted through his money and vision: Chad, Somalia, Algeria, The Philipines, Sudan, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan, etc.
The cover is the most biased piece: a collaged face of bin Laden that resembles a ghoulish African Tribal mask flanked by a bomb and a money bag with cross bones at his neck. On the back are recommended books, some of which I have read, as well. Represented in that list of recommended books are books that hold a critical lense to the Middle East but nothing that deconstrusts the United States history within that region. Hopefully Landau is at work on that now. This is a subject which will impact the world for countless generations and the need for accurate information is critical. Overall, I really liked this book and would recommend it for anyone wanting to understand the spread of an extreme, fundamentalist Muslim ideology and Osama bin Laden's role. Readers and librarians have a responsibility to become knowledgeable about Islam so that the beliefs of peace loving Muslims will not be confused with the beliefs of fundamentalist terrorists. A must have for the school and public library.

Rating:
Summary: The man wanted by many
Review: From Texas is way out of line here. What gives her the right to openly insult Muslims on Amazon?? I am utterly horrified and if I may say, as a former Christian converting to Judaism, take a look at your own faith, honey. Ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition or the French Wars of Religion???? PS, FREE SPEECH LIVES, and every person of every belief STILL has the right to publish what he wants.

Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: i though this book was good. it shows all the information about what osama has done. it was very evil what he has done. i recomend this book to people so they know about famous people even if they are evil. it shows u what is going on in the future. i was intrested and u should be to.
thanks
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Rating:
Summary: Outrageous
Review: If you are looking for a good book to introduce your children to the criminal terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, this book is what you are looking for. This book expertly explains the story of bin Laden without introducing details that would confuse children.

Rating:
Summary: A good book for younger people...
Review: If you are looking for a good book to introduce your children to the criminal terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, this book is what you are looking for. This book expertly explains the story of bin Laden without introducing details that would confuse children.

Rating:
Summary: The man wanted by many
Review: The book I read was of Osama bin Laden and his life. In the begininngs Osama was a
Muslim who believed in Allah . Osama's views came straight out of the Muslim holy
bible(Koran). It stated that anyone who committed adultery, gambled, cheated, drank
alcohol, eats pork or lends money or at interest were going to the gates of hell. Since we
as a nation do each and every one of these things Osama saw us as the enemy to his
religion. His father died in a terrible plane crash. That is how he got the idea of Sept.11th.
He wanted to do what he thought his father would have done. Take out the enemy before
they overrun you. So Osama took his religious views out on the United States because he
didn't want our corrupt and immoral ways to spread to his country.
The book as a whole was very interesting to me. I got to kind of know the man
who some Americans have called "Satin himself". To really get a good look into his life
tells you way he did what he did. I totally don't agree with what he did to the US when
we didn't do anything to him but he was brought up to think that the US is corrupt and
should not be able to spread our ways to any other country. In Osama's own words "The
United States shouldn't be able to infect the rest of the world so I took care of it". Osama
is such an evil man. I can't believe how many terrible things he did to others. This book
goes into detail of his life and in my opinion it does a very good job of showing who and
why Osama is Osama.

One of the things that I didn't like about this book was that the author Elaine
Landau sounded like she agreed with what he did to us. It made me upset to read some
parts of this book because it was like she was siding with the enemy. She said that Osama
Bin Landen didn't become an internationally wanted terrorist overnight, she's right. But
the way she writes that it was the Afghanistan war that changed him for the worst. She
stated him as brave, a leader and a hero. Saying this made me wonder how a author who
knows what a man did that was so horrible, how could she call him a hero?!

Rating:
Summary: Weak first chapter, then very good
Review: This short, easy-to-read book is a biography of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda. The book begins with a look at Islamic fundamentalism, showing how their philosophy differs from non-fundamentalist Islam. This is probably the weakest part of the book, as the footnotes all show that the author used Western journalists are resources, rather than Islamic scholars.

After that, the book looks at Osama bin Laden's life, from earliest childhood through to the beginning of the American involvement in Afghanistan (where Osama bin Laden disappeared). I found the book to be very informative, and quite interesting. I did not notice any particular demonizing of him, and the author seemed to be at pains to separate him from non-fundamentalist Islam. I was very disappointed with that first chapter, but other than that found this to be a very good book, one that I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Why write this book?
Review: Why would anyone want to write a book about Osama bin Laden? Are Americans trying to intrigue our children toward Islam or terrorism?!? I hope not!!!! If so, tap into reality and seek Christianity NOT ISLAM!!!!