The Al Qaeda reader should be required reading for any student of Political Science who wants to understand terrorism. In their own words, Al Qaeda tells the western world why they are attacking Western interests and what they want. The question needs to be asked if the United States did everything Al Qaeda wants, would the jihad be over, or would Al Qaeda just find something else about the West they could hate? As with most readers or collection of speaches, themes are repeated at nausea, but any discussion of modern terrorism should begin with this book.