How long does it take to read Al-Qaeda?
Jason Burke
Al-Qaeda by Jason Burke takes about 6 hours 3 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 6 hours 3 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2003. 330 pages, about 90,750 words.
13 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 10 hours 5 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 6 hours 3 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 47 minutes |
The page count is the median across 7 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
To most in the West, 'al-Qaeda' is seen as a byword for terror: a deadly, highly organised fanatical group masterminded by Osama bin Laden. But does this tell the whole truth?Prize-winning journalist Jason Burke has spent a decade reporting from the heart of the Middle East and gaining unprecedented access to the world of radical Islam. Now, drawing on his frontline experience of recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan, on secret documents and astonishing interviews with intelligence officers, militants, mujahideen commanders and bin Laden's associates, he reveals the full story of al-Qaeda - and demolishes the myths that underpin the 'war on terror'.Burke demonstrates that in fact 'al-Qaeda' is merely a convenient label applied by the West to a far broader - and thus more dangerous - phenomenon of Islamic militancy, and shows how eradicating a single figure or group will do nothing to combat terrorism. Only by understanding the true, complex nature of al-Qaeda, he argues, can we address the real issues surrounding our security today.
Subjects: Religious aspects of Terrorism, Qaida (Organization), Terrorists, Islamic Radicalism, Scholarly, Islamic Militancy
