Allah's Torch - by Tracy Dahlby (Paperback)

About the Book

In this first-ever reporting adventure, an acclaimed journalist and filmmaker illuminates the dark heart of what George Bush has called the next front in the War on Terror: Indonesia.

From the Back Cover

On the front-lines with the building of Al Queda forces in Indonesia both before and after 9/11, written in provocative style by the former Asia bureau chief for Newsweek International.

In Allah's Torch, National Geographic's Tracy Dahlby takes readers into the sprawling, porous, virtually lawless domain of Indonesia, where overlapping lines of radical Islamic rage are now converging in Asia, posing new threats to Westerners at home and abroad.

From the moment the adventure begins, the night the author blunders on board an Indonesian passenger ship with 600 Islamic warriors on an anti-Christian jihad, readers glimpse the passions, politics and personalities fuelling radical Islam's relentless march. We listen as Koran-thumping preachers, hardened holy warriors and fresh-faced recruits, police investigators, military commandos, and spies try to make sense of the epidemic chaos that threatens the region - and now the world beyond.

Based on reporting both before and after September 11, Allah's Torch is an action-packed and thought-provoking narrative that enables readers to see the face of Islamic terror more clearly and assess the threat for themselves.

Review Quotes

"Thoughtful and engaging . . . Dahlby combines the sharp sensitivities of a political observer with an old-fashioned flair for storytelling." - Newsweek (International Edition)
Thoughtful and engaging. Dahlby combines the sharp sensitivities of a political observer with an old-fashioned flair for storytelling. - Newsweek (International Edition)
"Helps fill the information gap." - Publishers Weekly
"A portrait of a religion under change, which can be as thoughtful and as insightful as it is sometimes irreverent." - Jakarta Post