Dining With Al Qaeda by Hugh Pope

From The Week of January 30, 2011

It is one of my eternal frustrations that much of what is reported from the Middle East comes to us through Western journalists who never settle long enough in the region to understand it, to internalize its character, its rhythms. Perhaps this is asking too much; after all, locals aren't immune from reading too much into symbolic events, much less being fooled by government untruths. Nonetheless, they have a knowledge that no parachuting journalist can have. It's a knowledge that allows them to contextualize events, to give them their proper weight. After all, as a Canadian, I wouldn't trust that a journalist from Zimbabwe could come to my country for a few weeks, talk to some government officials, tour some sites, and then declare that he's captured the spirit of my country. I'd put the odds of his account being accurate at a thousand to one. Mr. Pope may be British, but he's spent 30 years living, working and loving in a region that most of us in the West have never even visited. He's as close as I am going to get to the authenticity I crave. And being that I can veritably taste the Middle East in these pages, I consider myself satisfied.

From Iran to Saudi Arabia, from seductive Egyptian girls to deadly serious Islamic terrorists, Mr. Pope spills his three decades of reporting from the Middle East across this vivid account of life in a region so unlike the West which has sought, for so long, to control it. His description of what it was like to fly with the Iranians during their war with Iraq in the 1980s gives the reader a glimpse of a world so drenched in ideology, so locked into the necessities of the moment, that nothing short of victory can be tolerated. Contrast this hardcore determination with Saudi Arabian excesses and the reader will never again generalize about the "the Middle East." These nations are far too distinct to be merged. But this isn't just an account of events, of people, of moments in time; Mr. Pope communicates the sadness of the region, the inability on anyone's part to fix it, and the lack of will on anyone's part to speak up for a sense of unfiltered, unbiased justice. He's not a moralist; he merely has the knowledge that emanates from reading countless faces, absorbing the culture over hundreds of dinners. It's a knowing that seems to be in his blood and it wonderfully informs his work here.

Dining With Al Qaeda is an admirably sober image of a place no one understands. The narrative, though it jumps around as Mr. Pope moves from assignment to assignment, is fresh and devoid of fluff. Though the glimpses he gives us into the world of international journalism are interesting, the time he spends with the stateless Kurds in Kurdistan is most powerful and, alone, makes this a memorable read. Completely compelling. It lacks answers, but it does not lack for truths. (4/5 Stars)