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Al-Qaeda and What it

Means to be Modern

John Gray

Faber & Faber

pounds 10.99, 160pp

pounds 10.99 (plus pounds 2.25 p&p per order) from 0870 8001122

TO BE modern is to be progressive and chic. To be liberal is to be open-minded and tolerant. At least, that's what you thought. What you did not know is that your bedfellows are terrorists and torturers, and people who believe morality is defined by American might.

According to John Gray, modernity has been the defining myth of the West. It espouses the values of the Enlightenment: reason, positivism, knowledge, wealth and human happiness. It is supposed to be an …