The Osama Bin Laden I Know by Peter Bergen

I started listening to this book on CD yesterday in the car on our way home from Mama's house. It gives accounts from interviews with more than 50 people who knew Osama Bin Laden personally. The interviews paint a picture of Bin Laden from a young age as being shy, pious, and "different." I am only into chapter 2 but the stories tell of his transformation into a mujahideen committed to offensive jihad (terrorism.) The Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutub, is credited with presenting the ideological underpinning of the "Islamic Awakening" which aroused many young people to embrace jihad not only defensively, but offensively. He founded the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood which was a movement of the young against an ossified establishment of middle eastern regimes. His books were very popular Islamic worldview "bibles" but were very controversial. He was executed in the 60's by the Nasser government and this propelled him into being seen as a martyr by his followers. His writings became the philosophical framework for al-Qaida and influenced Osama Bin Laden greatly. I hope I get to finish the book/CD's....John actually checked it out. The stories are very enlightening about arabs, muslims and their culture. TTYL