Since 2001 America's War on Terror has achieved what Osama bin Laden could not: the unification of the jihad under al-Qa'ida's banner. Although today al-Qa'ida is seen as the epitome of jihad, when it first emerged other militant Islamists rejected its vision of a holy war against the West. What is the truth of its pre-eminent status and at what cost has it been achieved? Investigative journalist Camille Tawil charts the history of conflict and complicity between al-Qa'ida and its brothers in arms from the late 1980s to the present day. Drawing on a network of contacts in Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Algeria's Armed Islamic Group and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, he shows how the failure of their separate national struggles brought them increasingly under the influence of Osama bin Laden and his global agenda. From prison cells in Morocco to the caves of Tora Bora, Tawil gives us unique access to the key players behind the jihadist movement and the evolution of its violent ideology.
