On the Road to Kandahar: Travels Through Conflict in the Islamic World

By Jason Burke

From one of the world’s leading experts in modern Islamic militancy comes an intellectual and personal voyage through the Islamic world, the Muslim faith, and its perception throughout the world.
A brilliant, fearless journalist who knows huge areas of the Islamic world intimately, Jason Burke now turns to the wider question of how we are to get to grips with radical Islam and what it really means. Burke has travelled all over the great arc of Islamic land, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. In describing this journey, On the Road to Kandahar shows how various and completely unmonolithic Islam really is and how the sort of standard Western generalizations about it are both stupid and dangerous. Burke has met berbers in the Atlas mountains, Palestinian politicians, and hardline Taliban mullahs, and has examined how the actions of an extreme minority have exploited Islam, provoking fear and terror. And he explains how and why Western prejudices and stereotypes have evolved for what is actually a diverse cultural and historical heritage – and what the future holds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9780385672337

Jason Burke

Jason Burke is a prize-winning Chief Reporter for The Observer (U.K.) and the bestselling author of Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam (2004) and On the Road to Kandahar (2007).

Reviews for On the Road to Kandahar

[rajivc_18 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is quite an excellent book, one that I would not ordinarily have picked up. However, what I like, is that Jason shows a rare sensitivity when writing this book. He displays no antagonism to the people he meets on the road.His interpretations of what he sees, is subtle. He also takes the time to try and understand the people, and have real conversations with them. In doing so, he shows us a real glimpse of what is actually happening in the region.When he says, for instance, that Iraqis just want to put food on the table, we are suddenly reminded that we are all the same under the skin.We often look at people through the eyes of religion, not through the eyes of humanity. He brings this to the fore.A very good book, one well worth the read.