In the House of War

This is difficult work to categorise. The author, a liberal secular Moroccan, born in 1959, defines the work as ‘an academic and personal examination of the conditions that, beginning in the 1950s, … paved the way for the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and its aftermath’ (p.5). Oussama – now ‘Sam’ – tells us of his fascinating personal journey from Morocco as a student of philosophy, to France where he also studied; thence to Amsterdam where he wrote a PhD which included fieldwork in all of that city’s fifteen Moroccan mosques which included interviews with some of the most famous imams in Holland, as well as an analysis of ninety sermons produced between 1992 and 1995. Although himself part of a privileged elite, he used to visit relatives from Morocco living and working in Amsterdam’s restaurants. In 1994 he obtained Dutch citizenship and from 1994-2002 served as a Dutch MP. Losing his seat in the backlash that followed Pym Fortuyn’s murder, he left for the USA, where he now lectures in sociology at Emory University. His intellectual mentors include Pierre Bourdieu and Mohammed Arkoun.