What were the Americans thinking when they funneled weapons and money to the Afghan resistance during the Soviet occupation? Thanks to charismatic Muslim loyalists like Osama Bin Laden, Arabs began pouring into Afghanistan, which became, according to one "Afghan Arab," a 10-year university for jihad resistance. Long-time Middle East news correspondent Mark Huband tells the story, noting that when the Afghan Arabs were kicked out after the war, they returned to their respective homelands to contribute to radical Islamist movements. Hubard isn't sounding an alarm, though. His thesis is that so-called Islamic fundamentalists, whom he prefers to call Islamists, have less to do with religious imperialism than with local politics. Through first-hand accounts in the Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East, Huband sketches a world in which Islamism is a response to national conflict, not a gambit for global domination. In countries like Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt, where political repression and economic disadvantage persist long after colonialism and Cold War posturing, Hubard finds that Islamism is the only indigenous vehicle for change. Hubard puts it best, "The Islamist turns to his own country and hopes to reform it by using political pressure. When he fails he becomes frustrated. The consequences are multifarious." --Brian Bruya
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