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From the book jacket: Long before September 11, 2001, terrorism's
global elite was already zeroing in on Indonesia -- the world's most
populous Islamic nation, where dense jungles and intricate,
unpatrolled coastlines conceal almost endless hiding places. Tracy
Dahlby takes us into this dangerous terrain, both before and after
9/11, interweaving the divergent perspectives of Koran-thumping
preachers, hardened holy warriors, military commandos, and embattled
Muslim moderates, in a first-rate reporting adventure that sheds new
light on the epidemic chaos now threatening our international
community.
By turns harrowing, thought-provoking, and
humorous, Allah's Torch charts a
fascinating course through a sprawling land unknown to most
Americans where the home-bred Jemaah Islamiyah, Asia's answer to Al
Qaeda, pursues its deadly ambition of pressing all of Southeast Asia
under the yoke of a pure Islamic super-state.
Comment: Reviewer opinion is split on Allah's Torch;
both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews gave it the thumbs down;
Kirkus stating 'regrettably, most of
Dahlby's narrative takes the form of a sometimes cute, sometimes
merely self-indulgent travelogue full of set-piece guerrillas out of
Terry and the Pirates, strange food, mysterious rajahs, and so
forth--that is at odds with and ultimately undermines the dire
import of Dahlby's findings on the ground. Useful, but trying of the
patience'; whereas the reviewer for Newsweek found it 'thoughtful
and engaging', and concluded that 'Dahlby combines the sharp
sensitivities of a political observer with an old-fashioned flair
for storytelling.'
I agree with Kirkus to the extent that
Dahlby's writing style is a little chirpy, and there's no arguing
that he spends as much time
highlighting the lighter hearted side of Indonesia and its people as
he does the more sinister people and events. However, I don't
agree that this is necessarily a weakness -- I imagine that if one
was already familiar with the politics of the area (which I suspect
the reviewers for PW and Kirkus are) it could be seen as 'trying of
the patience'. However, for the great majority of us who have little
knowledge of the current political and religious situation in
Indonesia (and, if we're honest, would probably have been hard
pressed to find it on a map until the Tsunami hit in December 2004), the combination of travelogue and
political journalism is both relevant and interesting, as it
explains the current situation in Indonesia while putting a human
face on the people - and if you find yourself wanting to explore the
historical and cultural background Dahlby gives footnotes referencing additional sources - some of
which are available online.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in February 2005, and has been updated for the January 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.
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