Inside The Birth Of Modern Islamic Jihad

Lawrence Wright's book "The Looming Tower" takes you to the beginning in Egypt and the US and one Sayyid Qutb in the late forties. Wright explores the effect of the establishment of Israel and their easy defeat of the massed Arab armies and the birth of the Muslim Brotherhood that believed they lost because they had left Allah and only by returning to strict Sha`ria law could the be victorious over the Jews and to a lesser extent the West. Their focus was on Egypt only but Qutb's writings spread to the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia.

Wright chronicles OBL's father's rise to prominence with the Saudi family as a contracter for their first oil boom building projects and Osama's travels for jihad. Turns out he was seen as an incompetant fool with deep pockets. He had very little to do with kicking the Soviets out of Afganistan, except money, his Arabs were seen as very poor fighters by the Afgan Muj and were kept out of most of the fighting.

This incredible book covers all the innerworkings of how AQ came to be as well as Hezbullah, etal. It is extensively researched with documented with all the many players in a relatively small movement. I highly recommend this under the Tree if your spouse loves a thriller, then you can read it too, LOL .