terrorism as an extension of the hospitality industry

One thing that baffles me about the reach of Islamism is the fact that all of the propaganda for it I’ve seen is utterly, almost monumentally, tedious. Nonetheless I’m going to buy Message to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden. It seems like a necessary document somehow. Perhaps I’ll buy it for myself as a Christmas present.

Hah! That’ll show him.

Anyway, The Nation is carrying an essay by Bruce Lawrence, the co-compiler of the volume, which recaps bin Laden’s career. Excerpt.

There he worked with Azzam, contributing to his free circular al-Jihad, while also setting up his own operation in Peshawar, a guesthouse for Arab recruits to jihad against the Soviet Union. Called Sijill al-Qaeda or "Register of the Base," it was later known simply as Al Qaeda or "the Base."

Right. So the group that carried out the most spectacular atrocity in living memory and now serves as a hobgoblin, turnip ghost and sum of all fears in general practice across the Western world was named after a hotel.

If I ever start a terrorist group I’m, going to call it Travelodge.

In related news, this is decidedly odd.

Comments

[dsquared]

so was the Bilderberg Group, IIRC.

[Backword Dave]

Wasn't there a theory that "the base" came from Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy? (Utterly tedious books, IIRC.) May have been dismissed by Patrick Nielsen Hayden.

Of course, there's also a theory that's it's just a name made up by the security services.

[jamie]

Apparently al Qa'ida is a more correct anglicisation. I read somewhere that if you lose the apostrophe the word means "air conditioner."

Hmmm. All very J G Ballard.

[Alex]

Having spent most of this week between the back of a 747, the Cape Town Holiday Inn, and a vast convention centre, I'm inclined to agree. They are all terrorists. Waste the tourist trade!

More seriously, I'm going to post later today about a rather curious example of this..

[Alex]

It's done