Some books

[nicky g]

I just finished reading Malise Ruthven's "A Fury For God", a study on the background to al-Qaida and 9/11. Recommended for an informative wide-ranging and balanced discussion, although it does give a slight impression of being a series of articles rearranged into a single narrative (the tone jumps around a lot) and the chapter on the "clash of civilisations" model is pretty obscure and overly-theoretical. V. interesting on Wahhabism - for instance it describes early Wahabbists as regarding not only non-Wahabbis (and especially Shias and Sufis) as polytheist heretics to be put to death, but also thought those who shared Wahabbi views but didn't think Shias etc should put to death as polytheists to be put to death. Also summarises some theories on Iraqi involvement in the 1993 WTC attack, which seemed fairly far fetched to me (only circumstantial evidence and dependent on a Hollywood-style identity theft - gives the Iraqi intelligence services far more credit for cunning than I would imagine they deserved).

Another book that I'm enjoying although not very far into is Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom. Have just hit a tough theoretical patch in it and it's not going to win any prizes for prose, but generally accessible and thought-provoking. Some interesting stats it notes: African Americans have a lower life expectancy than people in several developing states such as China and Kerala in India, despite being hugely wealthier in terms of income; and that income redistribution in poor or unequal countries can hugely increase life expectancy even when GDP as a whole falls.

Both recommended.