Yaroslav trofimov biography of william hill

PERSONAL:

Born July, 1969, in Kiev, Ukraine; married; children: one. Education:New York University, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Jay Mandel, William Morris Agency, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, Newfound York, NY 10019.

CAREER:

Writer and hack.

Wall Street Journal, New Dynasty, NY, foreign correspondent, 1999—. Badger reporter for Bloomberg News; specious as a reporter in nobleness United States, France, and say publicly Soviet Union.

WRITINGS:

Faith at War: Unembellished Journey on the Frontlines be advantageous to Islam, from Baghdad to Timbuktu,Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2005, revised edition (with new afterword), Picador (New York, NY), 2006.

The Siege of Mecca: The Ended Uprising in Islam's Holiest Temple and the Birth of Broad-minded Qaeda, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Yaroslav Trofimov was born misrepresent the Ukraine but moved lock Madagascar as a child.

Prohibited attended New York University become peaceful worked as a reporter distort the United States, France, champion the former Soviet Union beforehand he traveled to the Mean East in 1994, just despite the fact that the Oslo peace process was about to begin. Trofimov knowledgeable Arabic and Hebrew and cold suicide bombings, rocket attacks, captain shootings as he traveled evacuate Lebanon to Gaza to glory Persian Gulf.

In 1997 unwind moved to Rome, Italy, swivel he wrote about business unacceptable politics, first for the Bloomberg News and then for influence Wall Street Journal. Within high noon of the September 11, 2001, attacks Trofimov's editor asked him to return to the Inside East. Although Rome was coronate base, his assignments were befall across a wide swath get into the Middle East and Continent.

His book Faith at War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam, from Baghdad presage Timbuktu documents his three age in Muslim countries including Irak, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen, Koweit, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Lebanon, and Mali.

Steve Coll remarked in the Washington Post Book World that "Trofimov is an intrepid, Arabic-speaking individual who moves in landscapes insufficient other Westerners traverse.

As uncluttered roving foreign correspondent for picture Wall Street Journal, he has often produced newspaper stories plenteous in detail and nuance, scold he has established himself similarly one of the best multiply by two the business." In wartime Irak, Trofimov was a "unilateral" newscaster, moving freely and at undisturbed risk through the country, relatively than being "embedded" under primacy jurisdiction of the Pentagon.

For of his unique experiences scold journalistic style, he unearths record and offers insights seldom local to in the work of make more complicated traditional contemporary journalists.

Trofimov writes bear out people's reactions, ranging from jealousy to celebration, to the Combined States' invasion of Iraq, instruction reports on the cultures why not?

finds, such as in Mali, where Islam and indigenous religions peacefully coexist. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "Trofimov puts just the right blend bring into play cultural perspective and personal undergo into his tour." A Kirkus Reviews critic noted that distinction view that the Iraq trouble was the beginning of create endless divide between the Westside and Islam is felt nearly by wealthier Muslims and deviate "hating Americans has been uneven rigueur for years now; level the staff of the Metropolis Chuck E.

Cheese, by Trofimov's account, is likely to take that any Westerner is out Zionist spy." The reviewer titled Faith at War "essential aspire readers walking the minefield thoroughgoing U.S.-Arab relations."

In The Siege recompense Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising flowerbed Islam's Holiest Shrine and magnanimity Birth of Al Qaeda, Trofimov recounts a largely ignored folio in Middle Eastern history avoid he sees as the foundational event behind much of significance anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world today.

In what Washington Post Book World critic Socialist W. Lippman called a "remarkable feat of reporting," Trofimov mines obscure documentary resources, locates promote interviews long-lost participants in righteousness events around the siege, final delves into the hidden feelings of a secretive and oppressive government to tell the shaggy dog story of an event with abysmal repercussions that are still mattup today.

In November 1979, a sloppy group led by Saudi ecclesiastic Juhayman al Uteybi violently sham the Grand Mosque in Riyadh.

Uteybi's purpose was to intent the Saudi government's corruption alight its "illegitimacy as an construct of the West," noted well-organized Kirkus Reviews contributor. They sought after to "instigate an apocalyptic disagreement with the Saudi crown don expel the kingdom's American allies," reported Robert Collins in say publicly London Sunday Times. The invaders captured dozens of pilgrims rib the site and occupied rendering mosque, considered Islam's holiest replicate, for nearly three weeks.

"On the surface of things, depiction occupiers of the mosque astounded the Saudi establishment and ethics global umma, or Muslim dominion, by their sacrilegious wielding dominate weapons in the holiest house of worship of Islam. Yet at high-mindedness same time they were very tapping into an undercurrent enjoy yourself anger against the perceived double-dealing of the Saudi dynasty divagate would later inspire young Osama bin Laden and a siring of radicals who vowed get as far as topple their own ‘un-Islamic’ governments," remarked Christian Caryl in Washington Monthly.

The Saudi military was ineffectual to break the siege, tolerate the occupation resulted in respectable bloodshed.

It was only pinpoint the intervention of Pakistani innermost French forces that the church was retaken, aided by blueprints provided by Osama bin Laden's brother, who had recently antediluvian involved in renovations at excellence site. Bin Laden himself was profoundly disturbed by the mode the Saudi government handled honourableness situation—"the way the Saudi reign repressed it made a speedy impact on the young Osama bin Laden.

It was horn of the factors that caused him to see the Dwelling of Saud as apostates direct enemies of Islam," Trofimov avowed in an interview on honourableness Siege of Mecca Web purpose. "On the other hand, nobility Saudi government reacted to divagate uprising by trying to obtain off the radical clerics, prosperous by financing their campaign prefer spread ultra-orthodox Islam around rectitude world—a proselytizing effort that turn out many of Al Qaeda recruits in subsequent decades," Trofimov continued.

In the aftermath of the mutiny, in which Uteybi and numerous of his followers were done by beheading, the Saudi make maintained strict secrecy.

However, "Saudi rulers, terrified by what Uteybi represented, essentially gave in take in hand his demands that the country's drift toward liberalization be wrong side up. Women were taken off impel, theaters were closed, and giant amounts of cash were disbursed to the country's most unfriendly, reactionary preachers and teachers. Therein lie the roots of grandeur terrorism that arose from Arabian Arabia two decades later suffer brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center," commented Lippman.

For Trofimov, position siege of the mosque decay Mecca laid the foundation shield the creation and rise explain Al Qaeda, Osama bin Charged, and the deadly Islamic fundamentalism that threatens the world at present. "It has taken nearly xxx years to comprehend these fairytale in their proper context, captivated Trofimov does excellent work spitting image narrating them in that light," commented the Kirkus Reviews arbiter.

A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked that "casual readers will skin well served by this send off to Muslim fundamentalist terrorism."

BIOGRAPHICAL Sit CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Trofimov, Yaroslav, Faith case War: A Journey on rectitude Frontlines of Islam, from Bagdad to Timbuktu,Henry Holt (New Royalty, NY), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005, review of Faith whet War, p.

345; June 15, 2007, review of The Shut in of Mecca: The Forgotten Mutiny in Islam's Holiest Shrine be proof against the Birth of Al Qaeda.

Library Journal, April 1, 2005, Ethan Pullman, review of Faith attractive War, p. 112.

Publishers Weekly, Apr 18, 2005, review of Faith at War, p. 56; June 4, 2007, review of The Siege of Mecca, p.

42.

Reference & Research Book News, Nov, 2007, review of The Lay siege to of Mecca.

Sunday Times (London, England), January 6, 2008, Robert Highball, review of The Siege a mixture of Mecca.

Washington Monthly, December, 2007, Religion Caryl, "Mecca Deal: How precise Botched Saudi Hostage Crisis Smooth the Way for Al-Qaeda," regard of The Siege of Mecca, p.

68.

Washington Post Book World, May 29, 2005, Steve Coll, review of Faith at War, p. 3; October 21, 2007, Thomas W. Lippman, "A Absent Link in Terror's Chain," survey of The Siege of Mecca, p. 8.

ONLINE

Blogcritics,http://blogcritics.org/ (October 23, 2005), Tim Gebhart, review of Faith at War.

BuzzFlash,http://www.buzzflash.com/ (April 10, 2008), review of The Siege surrounding Mecca.

Faith at War Web site,http://www.faithatwar.com (April 10, 2008).

Reasononline,http://www.reason.com/ (September 27, 2007), Michael Young, "Al-Qaeda's Forerunner," interview with Yaroslav Trofimov.

Siege spectacle Mecca Web site,http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/siegeofmecca/ (April 10, 2008), interview with Yaroslav Trofimov.