That’s the message, though with greater complexity and shading, of a new book, “Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam,” by Gilles Kepel. Although the author is a French professor, I’m intrigued by his thesis because it’s in line with what I’ve seen in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where anti-American feelings run high among ordinary people, but not as high as their desire to live in peaceful, prosperous societies. Kepel argues that 9/11 was the work of hardline Islamists who had failed to gain support or power through less-sensational means; although we still need to worry about terrorist cells that existed before 9/11, there’s less cause to be concerned about new cells forming in its wake. “The attack on the United States was a desperate symbol of the isolation, fragmentation and decline of the Islamist movement, not a sign of its strength and irrepressible might,” Kepel writes. His book is reviewed in today’s New York Times.
