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Al-Qaeda: Afghanistan to Mali

Bridget Kendall discusses the spread of al-Qaeda style terrorism with William Dalrymple, Nadeem Aslam, Christina Hellmich and Imad Mesdoua.

Bridget Kendall discusses the roots and reach of Islamist terrorism from Afghanistan to Africa. The historian William Dalrymple looks back to Britain's First Afghan War where many Afghanis rose in answer to the call for jihad. Nadeem Aslam's latest novel ranges across the Afghan-Pakistan border where the past and the present are locked together. Dr Christina Hellmich explores what has happened to al-Qaeda since Osama bin Laden's death. And as David Cameron calls the response to Islamist terrorism in North Africa a "generational struggle", the political analyst Imad Mesdoua looks at the parallels with Afghanistan.

Producer: Katy Hickman.

Available now

43 minutes

William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is a writer and historian.

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Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan 1839–42 is published by Bloomsbury.

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Nadeem Aslam

Nadeem Aslam is an author.

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The Blind Man’s Garden is published by Faber and Faber.

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Christina Hellmich

Dr Christina Hellmich is Reader in International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Reading.

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Christina will be giving a talk, ‘Whither Al-Qaeda? The Future of the Islamist Threat’, at the University of Hull on 6 March.

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Imad Mesdoua

Imad Mesdoua is a political analyst at Pasco Risk Management.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 4 Feb 2013 09:00
  • Mon 4 Feb 2013 21:30

Podcast