My Trip to Al-Qaeda

My Trip to Al-Qaeda is a documentary based on Lawrence Wright's one man play of the same name. It chronicles fundamentalist Islam's rise to power and explores Wright's struggle to maintain his objectivity as a journalist writing about Islamic terror in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Looming Tower.

Lawrence lived for a time in the middle east and has extensive knowledge of the players in the world of radical Islam. He also wrote the screenplay for a movie called The Siege that came out in 1998. This is pertinent because it was a precursor to 9/11. In the story, the US government has abducted an Islamic religious leader, which leads to New York City becoming the target of escalating terrorist attacks. As the bombings continue, the US government responds by declaring martial law, and torturing captives. Sound familiar? Needless to say, it was not very popular among the Muslim community and a group of radicals blew up a Hard Rock cafe in South Africa in response to the movie trailer, because one of the stars, Bruce Willis, was a partner in the restaurant. A 12 year-old girl died as a result.

This is only one of the stories Lawrence tells in the movie. Another explores his relationship with the brother of Osama bin Laden, who became a source for Lawrence and was questionably linked to the 9/11 bombings through phone records. Before he could clear his name (or not) he was murdered.

This movie has been attacked from all sides. Muslims feel like they are unfairly portrayed as radicals. Conservatives will say Lawrence is an apologist and liberals will cringe at his admission of wanting to take out some of these people he was reporting on. Still it is an interesting insight into what the US is up against if we ever hope to end the fighting in the middle east.