BOOK REVIEW

Inside the Jihad
My Life with Al Qaeda

What kind of Muslim can end up as a spy for both France and Britain? Omar Nasiri (not his real name, of course) was born in Morocco and raised in Belgium. His exposure to Western civilization and its freedoms gave him a unique perspective and the ability to step out of his Islamic pattern of thinking. He was an outsider in Belgium, and when he finally returned in his teen years to Morocco, he was not accepted by his peers there either, and so was basically an outcast in both societies. Being a spy fitted his personality, because from what I can tell in reading this book, he was a borderline sociopath. He loved his mother, but that’s about it. It was primarily greed that led him down the spy path, along with his loathing of the violence preached by the jihadists. He completed military training in an Afghan terrorist camp. I was fascinated by all the lies he had to tell to protect his cover, and then had to keep it all straight. Most of the time his lying did not involve any advance planning. It is difficult to put this book down. I recommend it for when you are called to jury duty, or some similar situation.