"The Last Days of Muhammad Atta" is extraordinarily speculative. While some details can be confirmed like what Atta's will stated and his information from al-Qaeda because they were recovered in his lost bag at Logan.
(http://web.archive.org/web/20080526011027/http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uslugg274705186apr17,0,6096142.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print)
This makes the aspects of the story that are taken with artistic liberty more convincingly realistic. Thoughts and sensations experienced are obviously fabricated but this does something very important. They create a person that can be examined and an attempt to understand can be made by people in modern Western society. Readers can see the world that made these men monsters through the eyes of Atta. On the advice of Adichie, one can't start with the story of the Middle East with the 19 hijackers and 9/11 but instead consider how it got this way. The story paints a picture of a religious extremist that isn't religious but feels a need for something. A sort of desperation is seen in Atta and can be seen in many young terrorists. Does a person's environment and upbringing excuse these people? No. But hopefully we can see what it is that brought them to do it.
"Muhammad Atta was not religious; he was not even especially political. He had allied himself with the militants because jihad was, by many magnitudes, the most charismatic idea of his generation. To unite ferocity and rectitude in a single word: nothing could compete with that." Amis pg 3
The era of jihad is coming to a close in the midst of the Arab Spring but while some problems may be solved in this transition, other problems will definitely arise. Atta's story can be taken a cautionary tale that detail the recipe to create a generation of militants.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/opinion/04friedman.html?ref=thomaslfriedman)
The constant theme of "Last Days" is looking into the mind of someone that the world hates. Atta destroyed the North Tower on 9/11, killing thousands of people. His story is an important one to tell because it affects so many people, directly and indirectly. It also examines the creation of a monster and what can really drive people commit the worst atrocities.
Although I feel no sympathy for Muhammed Atta, this story portrays the manipulation of ignorant cowards by their rulers. In this story, Atta is reluctant to go through with the suicide bombing, however, the sheik and the imam tell him he has to do this for his country and he will be honored for it. Similarly, the Hutu rulers would tell the ignorant, lower-class Hutus to kill Tutsis because they are the enemy; and the Hutus would take the masus and kill blindly. All of these rulers know that their followers will do whatever is asked of them, and most of the time, the rulers can simply sit back and watch.
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