personal memories revolutionary states and indian ocean migrations

family business in trouble,” discusses
the challenges to the unwritten contract
between the al-Saud ruling family and
the country’s growing population.
Again, this section, apparently written in
1997, is not directly connected to the
events of 11 September 2001. Two
other terrorist attacks against US
interests—the bombing of the Office of
Personnel Management/Saudi Arabian
National Guard in November 1995 and
of the US military housing complex
Khobar Towers in June 1996—are
mentioned only in passing. More is
known about these attacks than Halliday
reveals and, despite the fact that Two
Hours ostensibly deals with the 11
September 2001 attacks, he resists the
temptation to use the earlier attacks in
Saudi Arabia to discuss terrorism.
Other contributions of Two
Hours are a “Lexicon of Crisis”—
interestingly placed at the beginning of
the book—that defines relevant
historical, Islamic, and ideological terms
along with group and location names of
value to the reader. Halliday also chose
to add six documentary appendices of
particular use to students of the 11
September attacks: the Founding
Statement of al-Qa`ida (23 February
1998); the Tashkent Declaration on
Fundamental Principles for a Peaceful
Settlement of the Conflict in
Afghanistan (19 July 1999); UN Security
Council Resolution 1328 (12 September
2001) condemning the attacks; UN
Security Council Resolution 1373 (28
September 2001) dealing largely with the
issue of terrorist financing; Osama bin
Laden’s 7 October 2001 statement
(broadcast on Al-Jazira Television and
published the following day in the
International Herald Tribune); and the 9
October 2001 statement published by
bin Laden spokesman Suleiman Abu
Gaith (published in the Financial Times).
Despite its disjunction, Two
Hours is a rich volume, its valuable
contents impossible to outline
thoroughly in any review. It would have
been much more gratifying if its two
102
parts were better linked. The sections in
Two Hours dealing with specific countries
would have better served Halliday’s
articulation of the West Asian crisis that
was the setting for the 11 September
attacks, if they were explicitly linked to
the attacks. Nonetheless, Two Hours will
be of particular interest to the student of
the Middle East and/or the Muslim
World. It will not be as informative to—
and was likely not intended for—the
generalist or the casual reader. Still, it is
a rare reader who will not be intrigued
by Halliday’s ideas here, challenging as
they do much of the accepted
mythology about Islam and the West.
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Vol. 5, Fall 2005, © 2005 The MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies