When my editor, Marigold Acland, asked me to update The Far Enemy, particularly the Prologue and Introduction, I read the book closely and concluded that its original arguments and hypotheses (supported by extensive primary evidence) speak for themselves and still stand. The Far Enemy engendered a critical debate about a forgotten truth: there exists no viable, formidable Islamist front united in armed struggle, or jihad, against the Christian West. Additions to and deletions from the two chapters would neither enrich the analysis nor shed further light on the jihadi phenomenon.

Instead, I authored a new substantive chapter, “Beyond the Far Enemy,” that advances a set of original and thought-provoking arguments about the future, or lack thereof, of jihadism in general and Al Qaeda in particular. Based on current primary data and interviews with activists and militants in the region and Europe, “Beyond the Far Enemy” builds on the book's previous findings and stresses some significant changes, particularly with respect to Al Qaeda and its loose network of affiliates: the massive erosion of Osama bin Laden's claims to legitimacy in the Muslim world and, from within, a fierce revolt against the global jihad by former senior associates and a serious theological challenge by leading Sunni and Shia clerics. Key leaders of Al Qaeda and influential scholars have recently blamed bin Laden directly for the turmoil engulfing the Muslim world and have called on young Muslims to be wary of false prophets like bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri.