The ISIS Reader

Reviewed by: Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, Srinagar, Kashmir

Published by: London: Hurst & Company, 2020, 326pp. ISBN: 9781787381971.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has now lost its vitality, vigour and terror. However, for a while, it was the most violent Islamist organization, that threatened everyone who did not believe in its weltanschauung. Its worldview was overwhelming; it believed in the supremacy of its interpretation of Islam and exploited this to achieve political goals and territorial expansion. ISIS did a lot of damage to the image of Muslims and Islam, just as it did reinforce Islamophobia in the minds of the non-Muslim masses. It provided a certain legitimacy to the Islamophobes and enemies of Islam who had hitherto used stereotypes, prejudice and animosity to fuel their anti-Islam campaigns, but now they had the actions of ISIS to justify their stance. It took a while for Muslim scholars and other terrorist organizations to respond to and engage with ISIS. In the early years, some justified their actions while others defended them but ultimately, upon witnessing their horrific crimes in the name of Islam, most Islamist groups and scholars repudiated them. But ISIS had its own scholars and jurists who legitimized and justified its terrorist acts.