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| NYC Play on Poor Misunderstood Al-Qaeda |
| 2007-04-02 |
| Lawrence Wright's 'Trip to Al-Qaeda' by Deborah Amos Author Lawrence Wright's one-man play My Trip to Al-Qaeda chronicles his quest to understand the rage at the Islamic fundamentalist group's roots. Morning Edition, March 30, 2007 · My Trip to Al-Qaeda, a one-man play in New York, is an emotional journey for the audience and the writer, who plays himself on stage. From what I hear, this is mea culpa theater. In interviews, Wright laments how Americans don't understand that terror is a "desperate" response to our oppression of the "other." Nevermind the jihad prescriptions in the unholy koran, and the promotion of hate in the Wahabi mosques. Lawrence Wright's award-winning book, The Looming Tower, charted the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. A television documentary that includes his work will be broadcast on PBS in April. Now, his new play documents his quest to understand the rage at the roots of the terrorist group. The performance is a personal form of his journalism, tracing the backgrounds of the central figures in the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. On that day, Wright felt an odd, personal connection. "I had a sickening feeling on 9/11. You know, everyone was saying, 'It looks like a movie,' and I was saying, 'It looks like my movie.'" He had written a screenplay for The Siege, the 1998 film that depicts a terrorist attack in New York that leads to tanks in the streets and the curtailing of civil liberties. However, the martial law commander - played by Bruce Willis - is arrested at the end of the film. Wright hardly promoted military solutions to counter-terror in his screenplay. Boo Hoo! They hate us! "As time was passing," he said, "I was praying that the plot wouldn't play out exactly as it had in the movie, but step by step, the script unfolded." By then, Wright was already researching his book, interviewing more than 600 people, including former al-Qaida members. He lived for a time in Saudi Arabia, traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Those experiences are packed into this play... Those contacts would ONLY talk to a dhimmi doormat. Root cause: self-absorbia. |
| Posted by:Sneaze |
| #4 Wright laments how Americans don't understand that terror is a "desperate" response to our oppression of the "other." I wonder if he'll lament how Muslims don't understand how their terror led to a violent oppression agains them. Terrorists should have tried to stop the circle of violence. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-04-02 14:26 |
| #3 Whatcha think the chances are of getting a play produced in NYC that is based (in truth) on the more infidelophboic portions of the koran? Such a play needs to be written but it won't happen. |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2007-04-02 13:39 |
| #2 What I want to know is, besides the palestinian "oppression", who the hell is oppressing the rest of the muslim world? Can someone make a list of muslim countries and their oppressors, please? |
| Posted by: TMH 2007-04-02 13:16 |
| #1 What I want to know is, besides the palestinian "oppression", who the hell is oppressing the rest of the muslim world? |
| Posted by: TMH 2007-04-02 13:15 |