Ken Ballen,Peter L. Bergen
Drawing on unprecedented access, a leading terrorism expert profiles six terrorists to offer an astonishing new portrait of our enemies as we have never seen them before.,Imagine a world where a boyâ€™s dreams dictate the behavior of warriors in battle; where a young coupleâ€™s only release from forbidden love is death; where religious extremism, blind hatred, and endemic corruption combine to form a lethal ideology that can hijack a manâ€™s life forever. This is the world of ,Terrorists in Love,. ,A former federal prosecutor and congressional investigator, Ken Ballen spent five years as a pollster and a researcher with rare accessâ€”via local government officials, journalists, and clericsâ€”interviewing more than a hundred Islamic radicals, asking them searching questions about their inner lives, deepest faith, and what it was that ultimately drove them to jihad. Intimate and enlightening, ,Terrorists in Love ,opens a fresh window into the realm of violent extremism as Ballen profiles six of these menâ€”from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabiaâ€”revealing a universe of militancy so strange that it seems suffused with magical realism. ,Mystical dreams and visions, the demonic figure of the United States, intense sexual repression, crumbling family and tribal structuresâ€”the story that emerges here is both shocking and breathtakingly complex. ,Terrorists in Love ,introduces us to men like Ahmad Al-Shayea, an Al Qaeda suicide bomber who survives his attack only to become fiercely pro-American; Zeddy, who trains terrorists while being paid by Americaâ€™s ally, the Pakistani Army; and Malik, Taliban leader Mullah Omarâ€™s personal seer. Lifting the veil on the mysterious world of Muslim holy warriors, Ballen probes these menâ€™s deepest secrets, revealing the motivations behind their deadly missions and delivering a startling new exploration of what drives them to violence and why there is yet an unexpected hope for peace. An extraordinarily gifted listener and storyteller, Ballen takes us where no one has dared to goâ€”deep into the secret heart of Islamic fundamentalism, providing a glimpse at the lives, loves, frustrations, and methods of those whose mission it is to destroy us.
Nonfiction,Religion,Politics,Religion,Islam,War,Terrorism,Biography,History
Terrorists in Love: The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals