Inside the Jihad - Omar Nasiri

I picked this one up thinking it would be a thriller kind of like the movie Traitor with Don Cheadle (good movie, by the way).  It wasn't really what I expected but it still kept my attention through out.

The main character, Omar (not his real name), is a Morrocan Muslim who seems to be more materialistic than devout.  Although he does seem to manage to slip in and out of these two modes when he wants to.  When he is in France he is all about girls and money and when he gets to the camps its like that side of him doesn't exist and he is an uber pious Muslim.  Rather than being an awesome spy, I think that both of these sides are part of him, plus the extremist terrorist side.  This puts an interesting slant to reading this book because rather than fully supporting the main character, (which tends to happen even if they are not someone you would like in real life, see most tv shows) I tended to be wary of him.

I think his stance would probably be as follows:

       Jihad is not simply war of the mind as more liberal Muslims would claim it to be
       Jihad is war against those who who oppose Islam
       Jihad does not include killing innocent people
       There are people who are non-Muslim and innocent (key)

His main concern was going to war with the Chechen jihadists against the Russians,as Russians had invaded their land and threatened Islam.

The insight into the training camps was interesting.  Basically like an army training camp but very hands on.  They seem to be able to experiment with any kind of weapon and it scary what they have access to.  All funded by people like Bin Laden

The redeeming side is his work with the DGSE and MI5 and MI6.  He identifies and turns in a few extremists and possibly averts some terror attacks.

The book doesn't really end with any resolved cliff hangers or dramatic twists or even a real conclusion.  I guess this guy is still out there possibly hiding from all the extremists he talks about.

I'm not sure about recommending this book, it was fairly long and had bad language in parts but it was interesting to see a different mindset than mine.