Slave of Allah: Zacarias Moussaoui vs The USA by Katherine C Donahue

Paperback:  Why did Zacarias Moussaoui become a member of a terrorist group that conspired to blow up major American buildings and oppose the United States government in every possible way?  Unless we answer that question, we can't answer two more important questions:  Why is there so much alienation and discontent among young Muslim men and women living in the West?  Why do hundreds, even thousands, of people in North America and in Europe join fundamentalist Islamic groups which offer them a role in the global jihad?

In 2006, Zacarias Moussaoui became the first person to stand trial in the US for the events of 11 September 2001.  This timely book provides a close insight into the Moussaoui case from an anthropological perspective.

Katherine C Donahue was present at the trial.  Based on first-hand evidence, this book provides a unique picture of an al-Qaeda convert in the process of forming his identity just when he is calling the death sentence upon himself.

It is the story of an extra-national opposition to Western democracy, seen through the experience of a man who calls himself a 'slave of Allah'.

Slave of Allah (2007) begins with his arrest and moves to the courtroom, telling the tale of Moussaoui's struggle with his defense lawyers, and raising questions about his ability to be 'represented' - his national and personal identity.

Donahue explores his background in France as the son of Moroccan immigrants, follows him to London, Afghanistan and Malaysia as he joins the growing fraternity of an Islam without borders.  He acquires an extra-national identity in which his loyalty is no longer constituted by his national identity - but by his allegiance to fundamentalist Islam.

About the author:  Katherine C Donahue is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Plymouth State University.  Dr Katherine Donahue has done field work in France, Tanzania, New England, and Alaska.  Her work in France has focused on the political economy of Montbéliard, near Switzerland and Germany and on West African musicians in Paris.  She attended the trial in Alexandria, VA, of Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen accused of conspiracy in planning the attacks of 9/11, and has published a book and several articles about that case.  She received a Whiting Foundation Fellowship to do field work in Alaska and is at work on a manuscript, co-authored with Dr. David Switzer, on photographs in PSU’s McGoldrick Collection taken in Alaska in 1886 during the revenue cutter Bear’s first Arctic patrol.  Donahue is also conducting research on the sustainability of recreational boating.  Together with Plymouth State colleagues in geography, sociology, and biology she has taken students to France, Tanzania, and the Olympic Peninsula, Washington.