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The Blurb On The Back:
Graeme Wood’s The Way Of Strangers is a riveting, intimate journey into the minds of the Islamic State’s true believers, one which up-ends our understanding of their psychology, character and aims.
From the streets of Cairo to the mosques of London to the suburbs of Melbourne, Wood, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, interviews supporters, recruiters and sympathisers of the world’s most infamous jihadist group. We meet an Egyptian tailor who once made bespoke suits for Paul Newman and now wants to live under Sharia; a garrulous Australian convert who translates the group’s sermons and threats into English; and a self-taught Muslim cleric who is now determined to see America, the nation of his birth, drenched in blood. Drawing on insights from a wide spectrum of Islamic scholars, Wood explores the group’s apocalyptic dogma and the theology that influences its expansionist project.
The Islamic State is bent on murder and apocalypse, but its recruits find meaning and fellowship in a utopian dream. This appeal of the Islamic State is key to understanding it – and predicting what its followers will do next.
With on-the-ground reporting, vivid character studies and clear-eyed analysis, The Way of Strangers uncovers a movement that has inspired tens of thousands of people to abandon or uproot their families. It will shape how we see a new generation of terrorists.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Graeme Wood writes for The Atlantic and is a political science lecturer at Yale University and in this book he interviews a number of Islamic State supporters, recruiters, sympathisers and promoters, setting his discussions and research against the theological background to and political rise of the organisation and its methods of recruitment in a fascinating but disturbing read that gives real insights into the group and its thinking.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Graeme Wood’s The Way Of Strangers is a riveting, intimate journey into the minds of the Islamic State’s true believers, one which up-ends our understanding of their psychology, character and aims.
From the streets of Cairo to the mosques of London to the suburbs of Melbourne, Wood, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, interviews supporters, recruiters and sympathisers of the world’s most infamous jihadist group. We meet an Egyptian tailor who once made bespoke suits for Paul Newman and now wants to live under Sharia; a garrulous Australian convert who translates the group’s sermons and threats into English; and a self-taught Muslim cleric who is now determined to see America, the nation of his birth, drenched in blood. Drawing on insights from a wide spectrum of Islamic scholars, Wood explores the group’s apocalyptic dogma and the theology that influences its expansionist project.
The Islamic State is bent on murder and apocalypse, but its recruits find meaning and fellowship in a utopian dream. This appeal of the Islamic State is key to understanding it – and predicting what its followers will do next.
With on-the-ground reporting, vivid character studies and clear-eyed analysis, The Way of Strangers uncovers a movement that has inspired tens of thousands of people to abandon or uproot their families. It will shape how we see a new generation of terrorists.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Graeme Wood writes for The Atlantic and is a political science lecturer at Yale University and in this book he interviews a number of Islamic State supporters, recruiters, sympathisers and promoters, setting his discussions and research against the theological background to and political rise of the organisation and its methods of recruitment in a fascinating but disturbing read that gives real insights into the group and its thinking.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
