In the aftermath of September 11, as Americans tried to figure out what they were up against, many of them turned to Ahmed Rashid's masterful book Taliban, the single best account of Afghanistan's murderous regime. With Jihad, Rashid offers an indispensable companion volume on five of Afghanistan's neighbors--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--and "the New Great Game" about to be waged over them between China, Russia, and the United States. "The vast, empty landscape dotted with oases of vibrant populations and political ferment, sitting on the world's last great untapped natural energy reserves, is almost as unknown to Westerners as it was to Europeans in the Middle Ages," writes Rashid, a Pakistani journalist with extensive experience reporting from the region. He describes the area's "growing instability," which he credits to a strain of militant Islam just like the form propagated by the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. One of the most interesting parts of Jihad concerns Juma Namangani, a shadowy rebel leader in Uzbekistan who has "cultivated an air of mystery that [is] even more extreme than that of the secretive [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar." Rashid concludes that radical Islam will remain popular in Central Asia as long as the governments there are oppressive. We ignore this part of the world at our peril, and there is no better guide to it than Rashid. --John Miller


From Publishers Weekly
As the events of September 11 showed, neglected areas of the Islamic world are feeding grounds for international terrorism. And as Rashid, author of the best-selling Taliban, shows in this important work, Islamic fundamentalism is gaining ground in Central Asia as well as it did in neighboring Afghanistan. Until 1991, the five Central Asian countries Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were part of the Soviet Union. As Rashid discloses, the decade since then has seen a region grown increasingly despotic and impoverished, even though the countries are rich in oil. He offers brief histories of the five countries that make up Central Asia before launching into the rise of Islam. The story line Rashid skillfully weaves is relatively straightforward: Islamist groups, barely tolerated during the waning days of the U.S.S.R., experienced a revival after Communist strictures against religion were lifted. Forced to go underground as post-Communist leaders used repression to ensure their own survival, these Islamist groups "would eventually become radicalized and violent" and outsiders from the Arab world further radicalized them. The strongest group, with ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, emerged in Uzbekistan and has been brutally repressed by President Islam Karimov. Rashid pointedly focuses on how the United States has looked the other way regarding Karimov's human rights abuses as Uzbekistan has offered support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Without international pressure on these regimes to follow human rights standards and end the corruption that has left the societies poor, Rashid argues that Central Asia could become the world's next tinder box. (Feb.)Forecast: Rashid has proven he deserves attention and readers. He will probably get media time, but the reading frenzy about the roots of terrorism could be waning, and this book's sales may not match those of Taliban.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Rashid has long been one of the best historians of Central and South Asia. It wasn't a particularly popular niche until the events of September 11, which sent Rashid's most recent book, Taliban, to the top of best-seller lists. In this book, rushed out in the wake of that book's success, Rashid turns to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. He introduces readers to Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan with brief overviews of their religious and political history. The Central Asian brand of Islam has historically been marked by its tolerance, he argues, but this is changing. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the five nations have floundered, despite ample natural resources, including huge oil reserves. Corrupt regimes oppress the people, and radical Islamic movements advocating jihad have grown at an astounding rate. The sad and disconcerting story is told well, although Rashid's language is sometime stilted. But, like Taliban, this book brings a complicated political, economic, and religious situation to life for a wide audience. John Green
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FROM OUR EDITORS

Journalist Ahmed Rashid, an expert on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, looks at five key spots in that troubled region: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Krygyzstan, and Tajikistan, determining how dire the threat of militant Islam is in each.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The terrorist attacks of September 11 have turned the world's attention to areas of the globe about which we know very little. Ahmed Rashid, who masterfully explained Afghanistan's Taliban regime in his previous book, here turns his skills as an investigative journalist to the five Central Asian republics adjacent to Afghanistan.

Central Asia is coming to play a vital strategic role in the war on terrorism, but the region also poses new threats to global security. The five Central Asian republics-Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan-were part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Under Soviet rule, Islam was brutally suppressed, and that intolerance has continued under the post-Soviet regimes. Religious repression, political corruption, and the region's extreme poverty (unemployment rates exceed 80 percent in some areas) have created a fertile climate for militant Islamic fundamentalism. Often funded and trained by such organizations as Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban, guerrilla movements like the IMU (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) have recruited a staggering number of members across the region and threaten to topple the governments of all five nations.

Based on groundbreaking research and numerous interviews, Jihad explains the roots of militant rage in Central Asia, describes the goals and activities of these militant organizations, and suggests ways in which this threat could be neutralized by diplomatic and economic intervention. Rich in both cultural heritage and natural resources-including massive oil reservoirs-Central Asia remains desperately poor and frighteningly volatile. In tracing the history of Central Asia andexplaining the current political climate, Rashid demonstrates that it is a region we ignore at our peril.

Author Biography: Ahmed Rashid is a journalist based in Lahore. He is the Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Daily Telegraph. He also writes for the Wall Street Journal. Rashid's previous book, Taliban (published by Yale University Press), reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

FROM THE CRITICS

Justin Marozzi - Financial Times (London)

[A] masterful commentary. . . combines. . . research of a skilled investigative journalist with an academic's clear-headed. . . analysis. . . [T]he best we have.

Adrian Karatnycky - Wall Street Journal

A compelling account of Islamist movement that has spread like wildfire in Central Asia's repressive regimes...[Rashid] makes it vividly real.

L. Carl Brown - Foreign Affairs

. . .[A] fine study. . . Rashid. . . treats the five separate ￯﾿ﾽstans￯﾿ﾽ. . . [and] their various Islamist movements. . .

Robert D. Kaplan

For many years now,Ahmed Rashid has been the journalistic interpreter of the changing nature of Islam in Central Asia. He has always been ahead of the curve,and America￯﾿ﾽs war on terrorism makes his new book more important than ever.

Peter Bergen - Washington Post Book World

Rashid[￯﾿ﾽs]. . . tour d￯﾿ﾽhorizon is a tour de force,illuminating one of the murkier regions of the world. Read all 11 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

For many years now, Ahmed Rashid has been the journalistic interpreter of the changing nature of Islam in Central Asia. He has always been ahead of the curve, and America's war on terrorism makes his new book more important than ever.
(— Robert D. Kaplan, author of Warrior Politics)  — Robert D. Kaplan