'' The Looming Tower '' is largely focused on the people who conspired to commit the September 11 attacks , their motives and personalities , and how they interacted . The book starts with Sayyid Qutb , an Egyptian religious scholar who visited the United States in the late 1940s and returned to his home to become an anti-West Islamist and eventually a martyr for his beliefs . There is also a portrait of Ayman al-Zawahiri , from his childhood in Egypt to his participation in and later leadership of Egyptian Islamic Jihad to his merging of his organization with Al Qaeda
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
The Looming Tower