DINING WITH AL-QAEDA

I first met Morton Abramowitz as a young reporter when I went to interview him as ambassador to Turkey in the early 1990s, little realizing that I would join the organization that he subsequently co-founded — International Crisis Group. Abramowitz has had a hand in almost everything impacting Turkey and the Middle East in recent decades, so I was really flattered when he took the trouble to give this endorsement of Dining with al-Qaeda:

“Most people learn best from stories. And Hugh Pope’s latest book on his thirty years of reporting on the Middle East is a great learning experience. The tales of his wanderings from Sudan and Egypt to Pakistan are not only fascinating, but they also serve to illuminate Middle Eastern countries in a way that scholarly books often fail to do. His reflections sharply narrow the gap between popular Western perceptions of the region propagated by our media and many politicians and the more complex reality. Freed of the heavy hand of his daily editors on what the public wants to read, Pope has produced a highly informative, provocative, and enjoyable work.”
Morton Abramowitz, former President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former US Ambassador to Turkey

I first met Tony Horwitz when he was a Wall Street Journal correspondent, determined to see every inch of every border with Iraq to test a theory about sanctions against that country during the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. We spent a week bumping up and down mountain roads along the Iraq-Turkey border together, and I helped him talk to every Kurd and practically every donkey that we came across. I really enjoyed his book Baghdad without a Map, which describes some of his adventures in those days. Horwitz has of course become a best-selling author since then – like his wife, former Journal correspondent Geraldine Brooks – and many thanks to him for taking the time to endorse Dining with al-Qaeda:

“Hugh Pope goes behind the headlines to probe the world’s most volatile and misunderstood region. Balanced, deeply informed, and darkly fun, Dining with al-Qaeda is a must-read for Middle East junkies.”

Tony Horwitz, author of A Voyage Long and Strange and Baghdad Without a Map

I’ve long been a fan of Azadeh Moaveni‘s writing, and especially enjoyed her book Lipstick Jihad, which tells about her Iranian-American childhood and her attempts to return to Iran. So I was really happy that she agreed to endorse Dining with al-Qaeda:

“Hugh Pope’s deftly told account of 30 years in the Middle East recounts the region’s troubles with bracing honesty, and its charms with genuine affection. Often a page-turner, populated by a colorful cast of deeply human characters, Dining with Al-Qaeda goes beyond the day’s headlines to offer a nuanced and compelling portrait of the region. Pope brims with remarkably brave and crucial insight into the Western media’s coverage of the Middle East.”
Azadeh Moaveni, author of Honeymoon in Tehran and Lipstick Jihad