ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The common thread of the chapters in the book is an interest in the various political and politicized frameworks of reference that are deployed in order to make sense out of an opaque organization and its incomprehensible violent acts. The spectacular acts of destruction in New York and Washington DC literally came out of the blue and took the Western world by surprise, launching a rollercoaster of uncertainty, fear and speculation. The book describes the variety of different explanations, the processes by which terrorism and the spectral entity of al-Qaeda are made objects of scientific, cultural, and political knowledge. The idea of the 'meaninglessness' of 9/11 was further solidified by a peculiar disinterest on the part of Western societies with regard to al-Qaeda's own narrative.
