Hah, I remember my avatar of Sayyid Qutb didn't come off as controversial in nature, which did not honestly surprise me since most people were simply self-proclaimed experts on terrorism and Al Qaeda, but maybe now people will become more interested in the history of Islamism.
Also, a BBC documentary does not mean it necessarily reflects the view of the BBC news team or the television network itself. It is however a good quality documentary, and BBC prides itself on that sort of content, plus it is controversial and makes people think about the topic in a different way.
However, I am not mentioning names, but I think quite a few of you have misunderstood what they mean by the word "illusion" in this context. It is used in the sociological meaning of the term, that Al Qaeda, the organisation, is an intangible thing, and therefore equivalent to something mythical like words such as fate, God, power etcetera.
I think that the documentary has a clear postmodernist view on the subject since it is accounting for how the history of Islamism and how it was portrayed and, by some implicit consent, demonised by certain political entities who would benefit from "defeating it" in terms of popularity. Sociologists often research this field of politics since it is definitely clear that we as people deal with very complicated terms in a very colloquial manner in daily speech by referring to them by simple names such as conservatism, terrorism and democracy.
In that sense I understand how the title could be misleading. I did entertain that it was a bogus article, but it seems genuine. Either way, is the BBC info article about the series.