Excelling in grand spectacles of carnage and brutality, al-Qaida has succeeded in focusing the spotlight on itself. But it has won the west’s attention for another reason, which most would find difficult to acknowledge. It happens to confirm existing stereotypes and deep-seated prejudices about Islam and Muslim as emotive, violent, irrational, and fanatical. […] The truth however, is that the Muslim scene is much too broad and colourful to be reduced to al-Qaida and its holy warriors.

— The myth of al-Qaida's omnipotence by Soumaya Ghannoushi in Comment is Free