"On the Road to Kandahar"

I recently read Jason Burkes "On the Road to Kandahar" on 15 years of journalistic work in the so-called Muslim World (not a term of my choice).

Burke has also written this.

I liked his style - I always appreciate people who write about things they have seen and heard for themselves, not what they have heard from a distance. Burke travels and lives in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Algeria during the 1900's and in the early 21st century, when political issues centered here have given more and more attention, and rarely for positive reasons...


I also appreciated very much his conclusions, saying, among other things: "And I realized that not only was there no general theory about militancy but there was no general theory that could explain 'the Islamic world' and that to search for one was not only futile but in fact counter-productive." and "if my travels during the previous years had taught me anything, it was that to emphasize the differences when there is so much that binds, to emphasize the divisions when so much is the same, to emphasize the distance when there is so much that is increasingly close, is not just dangerous but is wrong".

This is a view and a philosophy to which I fully subscribe and that I hope permeates the picture of my world that I give you here. Read the book!