The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam
Abstract
The new book by the renowned author, film maker, Islamic scholar and professor of anthropology is a detailed study of war against terror perpetrated on tribes of Pakistan and those living in different parts of world populated by Muslims. Beside his personal knowledge and experiences as a government officer posted in tribal areas of Pakistan in Waziristan previously the author has benefitted from forty case studies on tribes living in various parts of South Asia, West Asia, Far East, Africa and Russia (Dagestan). Akbar Ahmed’s extensive knowledge about the Islamic societies and anthropological studies makes him eminently qualified to write on the subject of the book.
The author has developed the main arguments of the book around two major themes. One, that the states supported by the United States, which is a power centre, are fighting wars in various parts of the world against tribes who have remained on the peripheries of the state system. The conflict between the state (centre) and the tribes (peripheries) that has erupted is due to the fact that the two have diametrically opposite world views. The state is a modern construct and tries to exercise its legal authority to establish its writ in all areas within its borders. Tribes on the other hand live by their traditional values of honour and freedom. They resist any attempt to change their traditional values and are prepared to die for them. This theme has been beautifully captured in the book The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. The drone in the tile symbolizes destructive power of US technology and the thistle is a metaphor for tribes’ resilience and resistance to US power.