Ken McLeod posted the following to rec.arts.sf.fandom > Forwarded with permission from China Mieville, fantasy writer > and student of international relations:
>> ------- Forwarded message follows ------- >> My supervisor, an expert in the Middle East, told me about a >> rumour circulating about the name of Bin Laden's network. >> The term 'Al-Qaeda' seems to have no political precedent in >> Arabic, and has therefore been something of a conundrum to >> the experts, until someone pointed out that a very popular >> book in the Arab world, Arabs apparently being big readers >> of translated SF, is Asimov's _Foundation_, the title of >> which is translated as 'Al-Qaeda'. >> Unlikely as it sounds, this is the only theory anyone can come up with. Ken [the other one - not me ] added: > This hypothesis raises some interesting possibilities. One is > that bin Laden has a number of video appearances prepared in > advance, which without being too specific give the impression > that he knows what has just happened at the time they're shown. > They could continue to appear at intervals long after his reported death. > Another is that there's a Second Al-Qaeda, somewhere else. Ken Brown (thanks to John Dallman for showing me this on Cix)