Journalist-turned-security-analyst Noor Huda Ismail fetches the thirst of an average Joe and Jane for an entertaining yet enlightening first-hand insight into the root causes of terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Through his easy-to-discern way of story telling, Huda tries to lure the readers to conclude that lack of critical thinking has led good men into the road to perdition, committing terrorism on the grounds of unquestionable religious-based ideology.

Temanku Teroris (My friend, a terrorist?) is Huda's first book, boosting his reputation as terrorism expert for having already published dozens of widely known research papers, and columns printed by various noted local and international media outlets.

"I'm not selling the thrill of terrorism story in the book. What I'm trying to convey is actually what drives the violence," said Huda in a recent interview.

The book follows a different journey of Huda and Utomo Pamungkas, widely known as Fadlullah Hasan alias Mubarok, a terrorist convict now serving a life sentence in prison for his involvement in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings. Fadlullah was Huda's senior and roommate at the Al-Mukmin Islamic traditional boarding school in Ngruki, Surakarta, Central Java.

The school, led by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, has been in the spotlight after some of its alumni, both teachers and students, were found to be involved in a number of terrorist activities throughout the country.

After graduating from the school in 1991, Huda enrolled both in the Sunan Kalijaga Islamic University and the secular-based Gadjah Mada University, both in Yogyakarta, while Fadlullah went to study in Pakistan and later fought for fellow Muslims in Afghanistan against the Russian invaders.

Huda and Fadlullah were later reunited for a different cause after the 2002 Bali bombing, when Huda was then a correspondent for American newspaper The Washington Post, while Fadlullah was a suspect in the attacks that killed more than 100 people, mostly foreign tourists.

"A lack of critical thinking to debate or question certain aspects of any teachings will lead a student down the wrong path, or become easily tricked into violence, such as in the case of Fadlullah" said Huda.

"Lack of critical thinking is not only plaguing Islamic boarding school, where it is obligatory for a student to be subservient to clerics. Our entire education system in general has accommodated less room for being critical."

Fadlullah, who was once a bright student with good manners, is now reaping the harvest of violence by spending his time in solitary confinement without ever being visited by his Jihadist colleagues or schoolmates.

His two daughters have to bear the brunt from his activism as they are constantly mocked by neighbors, while his wife has to struggle to make ends meet.

"The book is a kind of reconciliation for former *terrorist* convicts and combatants, in the hope they will be able to critically think and put the matter into perspective unless they want to end up like Fadlullah," said Huda.

"The theme that runs through the book actually resembled that of the movie How to Train Your Dragon. You just have to know their weakness to be able to prevent them from being lured into committing similar violence," said the founder of Prasasti Perdamaian Foundation, currently assisting a dozen of ex-terrorists in building a new life after serving long sentences.

Dozens of former terrorist convicts are now back in action by plotting more attacks, with the recent one involving military training in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

According to Huda, his book is currently being distributed by former terrorist convicts and former Jihadist combatants to their peers in the hope that it could help prevent existing terrorist networks from recruiting both experienced and fresh jihadists.

"I'm actually racing against time with my book to help slow down the terrorist cells from recruiting hardliners committing violence. With this book, I expect these radicals to be critical before deciding to join the network," he said.

Unlike other books on terrorism - mostly depicting complicated interpretation and debates over verses of the Koran and Hadists (words and deeds of Prophet Mohammad) for igniting interpretations of violent jihad - Huda's book has delivered a new perspective and eclectic storytelling aimed for common people and for former terrorist convicts to easily grasp the essence of the story.

A non-linear storyline inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is adapted into the book to add to the eclectic flavor.

The book was written in a popular style, but with facts gathered from standard journalism practices, requiring Huda to undergo extensive traveling and working hours for fact checking with related sources.

"The writing method is based on numerous interviews and fact finding on the field. I have to go forth and back to visit the terrorist convicts in their cells, and their family to verify all the data and seek input from them."

"It was these processes that took up most of my resources and time in writing the book," said Huda, adding he had sent the drafts to the management of Al-Mukmin school for input and verification, but only to receive a cold response.

The book opens up with Fadlullah's confession as a veteran combatant in Afghanistan and his experience as among the masterminds in the setting up of a military camp for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatist group in the southern Philippines.

He also confessed to being involved in the Christmas Eve bombing in Mojokerto, Central Java, in 2000, and in the bombing of the Philippine Ambassador residence in Jakarta in 2001.

"The Al-Mukmin *boarding school* is the womb that carries me, while Afganistan is the midwife helping me with my birth, and those of the children that will one day be the soldiers taking the path of God's will," said Fadlullah in the book.

Fadlullah's tale was told early in the book to raise readers' curiosity and enthrallment. But they are not merely confined to a grim depiction of Fadlullah's days in the boarding school and the battlefield.

A cocktail of hilarious and humane vignettes of the everyday life of the Mujahideen in the battlefield are also pictured in detail.

Among them include a story where Fadlullah had to bear the local custom of wearing no underwear while donning the Afghani's traditional clothes. There is also a story in which several Afghan combatants had mistakenly taken Fadlullah's underwear as a hat.

The book also follows Huda's journey enrolling at the Al-Mukmin school during his childhood, providing insight into the way the school teaches and treats its students without any slight attempt at being coercive in labeling the school as a center of hard-liners.

Another interesting part of the book features Huda separately exposing the families of Fadlullah and fellow Muslim Eka Laksmi, whose husband was killed in the Bali bombings.

Readers are drawn emotionally into pondering the fate of Laksmi's two boys who are aware terrorists have killed their father while at the same time Fadlullah's two daughters somehow remained in the dark as to the fate of their father.

The girls - about the same age as Laksmi's boys - thought their father could no longer attend to their side as he is enrolling in a school for a religious cause.

"*The radicals* can make very good arguments over jihad through violence. But they never think that their condoned actions have created orphans," said Huda.

While Huda's general theme is about critical thinking, average readers will have difficulty in making such a conclusion, other than a story of two humble families becoming victims of violence stemming from misleading Islamic teachings.

"There's actually two themes that can be drawn from the book. The first is about a lack of critical thinking, which is aimed at former terrorist convicts and combatants, and security experts," said Huda.

"The second theme can include questions over the fate of the children who have to bear losing their parents either as a victim in the terrorist attack or as a convict spending lengthy jail terms."

Huda's book was first released in mid July, with an English version still awaiting sponsorships and publishers.

A documentary movie of the book will be premiered in an international film festival in Berlin, Germany, merely months before the movie is released here.

Huda is also preparing his second book on his efforts to rehabilitate former terrorist convicts.

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