On the Road to Kandahar
Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World

In the summer of 1991, Jason Burke set off to join Kurdish guerillas fighting in Iraq. It turned out to be a remarkable journey that would take him all over the great arc of Islamic land, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia, from the Sahara to the Himalayas, seeing at first hand life and death, war and peace, bigotry and tolerance, hate and friendship throughout the 'Islamic World'. On the Road to Kandahar is the honest, fascinating story of his travels in search of answers to perhaps the most important issues of our time: how should we understand Islam, and Islamic radicalism?

His journey is intellectual and personal; a journey of human encounters with destitute refugees and senior government ministers, American snipers and hardened 'mujahideen'. It is a voyage into history and into the powerful ideas, ideologies and myths that have so often determined, for good or ill, the interaction of the West and the world of Islam. He shows how various and completely unmonolithic Islam really is and how the sort of standard Western generalizations about it are both stupid and dangerous. It is also a journey through the reality of the modern media and the reality of modern war.

Yet Burke’s conclusions are fundamentally optimistic. Though the strategy used in the so-called 'War on Terror' has been tragically flawed, the weapon that will prevail against militancy, Burke finds, is the essential moderation, sense and basic humanity of those he meets.

On the Road to Kandahar is vivid and enjoyable, but it is also important. It allows us to see, in all its variety and contradiction, a broad swathe of the planet that we urgently need to understand better.

Format: 160 x 240 mm, 297 pages, hardcover.

About the Author
Jason Burke is the prize-winning Chief Reporter for the Observer. He has covered the Middle East and Southwest Asia for over a decade and is renowned for his insights into the Islamic world. He wrote the best-selling 'al-Qaeda: the True Story of Radical Islam', a book that was widely credited with redefining the popular view of Islam.

"... an astute guide to the range and complexity of the Islamic world."
Sunday Telegraph

"A penetrating book."
Jon Snow, Observer

"... vividly written - his observations are sharp, and his conclusion - that extremist violence alienates its own populations and is therefore doomed to whither away - is surprising and refreshingly hopeful."
Scotland on Sunday