An extraordinary, fascinating document. This combination of investigation, testimony and analysis will be essential reading for any one interested in the truth about the foreign involvement in the war against the Soviets and the early history of al-Qaeda. -- Jason Burke, South Asia correspondent, The Guardian, and author of The 9/11 Wars
Leah Farrall and Mustafa Hamid's creative dialogue provides a unique synthesis between an insider's knowledge and a critical expert's analysis of the origins of global jihadism. Each helps the other, and both help us, see this multi-faceted movement in new and sometimes contradictory ways. -- Barnett Rubin, Senior Fellow and Director at the Center on International Cooperation, New York University
This is an incredible book. Gripping, detailed, and important, it lays bare a story that is all too often shrouded in myth. Read it and understand the roots of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and many of the other crises ripping through the Middle East. -- Gregory D. Johnsen, author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia
Essential reading for anyone who studies militancy in the Islamicate world. Hamid and Farrall offer a persuasive alternative history of the foundation of al-Qaeda and the internal politics of foreign fighters inside Afghanistan. This insider account is an important document that deserves to be studied for many years to come. -- Alex Strick van Linschoten, co-author of An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban/Al-Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan, 1970-2010
...a rare piece of original research into a subject that remains little understood and is often over-simplified. The book argues, correctly, that without understanding the early history of the jihadist movement we cannot hope to assess how the movement will evolve. It is also one of the few works to try to explain this history from the perspective of an early, active participant. ... The Arabs at War in Afghanistan should therefore be essential reading for specialists trying to understand the Islamic State, and serve as a warning against any attempt to provide static descriptions of Salafi jihadism rather than seeing it as a continually evolving process. * War on the Rocks *
As Farrell's dialogue develops, she extracts intriguing nuggets of information from Hamid such as the participation of Afghan mujaheddin fighters in the first Gulf War; the early involvement of Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI; divisions within the mujaheddin; and the rise of the Taliban. ... As so many questions are being asked about what led to the rise of Islamic State, Farrell has done a commendable job in bringing us an alternative perspective on what historians will look back on as the defining period in the crisis now enveloping the Arab world. * The Australian *
