Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Lawrence Wright's "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 "contains a wealth of information and gives some real insight into just what on earth caused the horrifying terrorist attack of 9/11. The paper looks at how the book includes key themes such as the origins of the extremist Islamist ideology that would fuel Al-Qaeda, and the way it was fanned into extremism by the horrors of torture in Egyptian jails in the 1980s. The paper also examines how the book describes how it was possible for American intelligence to fail so utterly to foresee or prevent the disaster.

From the Paper:

"Wright traces the origins of Al-Qaeda all the way back to Egypt, beginning in 1948 in Alexandria with Sayyid Qutb, foreign student in the USA - who would later write some of the books that would inspire and inflame those Muslim radicals who were turning to Takfir (the mirror image of Islam, which purports to be orthodox, while at the same time encouraging murder). Geographically his extensive background spans universities in Egypt, building construction sites in Saudi Arabia, the war in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, the setting up of radical Muslim cells in Pakistan - not to mention Qutb's happy days in Greeley, Colorado."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lawrence Wright. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 470 pp., h/c. $39.95.
• Alkhereiji, Mohammed. "Q & A with the New Yorker's Lawrence Wright." 7 January 2006. Retrieved from http://www.lawrencewright.com/int-asharq-jan06.html
• CNET Networks Entertainment. "The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright: Reviews." 2007. Retrieved from http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/wrightlawrence/loomingtower
• LawrenceWright.com. "Lawrence Wright Biography." Retrieved from http://www.lawrencewright.com/bio.html
• Marvel, Bill. "High Profile: Lawrence George Wright." Dallas Morning News. 16 February 2003. Retrieved from http://www.lawrencewright.com/int-dallasmn.html

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