I am always amazed with digital books that they track how much time one spends reading a book. I borrowed this book from the Great Lakes Digital Library after listening to Sam Harris interview Graeme Wood about recent events in Gaza and Israel. I often read in the evenings to put my mind at ease and despite the heavy content of this particular book, it did do the trick. I didn’t realize that I spent over 8 hours reading the book over the past two weeks.
I liked Graeme Wood’s book because it focused on the theology of the Islamic State instead of the politics or violence that other journalists focus on when writing about them. The Islamic State formed a caliphate or an independent, Islamic-based government in Syria and Iraq from 2014 to 2019. They were known by several names, ISIS, ISIL, etc. but Wood calls them the Islamic State. They are basically messianic zealots. Wood, a staff writer for the Atlantic and political science professor at George Washington University, interviewed many members of IS to understand their beliefs and interpretation of the Koran and Islam.
IS is a slim minority of the religion of Islam that focuses on literal interpretations of the Koran and the life of the Prophet Mohammed. They ignore the thousands of scholars and writers who have refined the faith and go back to the Koran. They bring the values, beliefs, and cultural mores of the Arabian Peninsula of 700 AD (when Islam was founded) into today’s world. Wood interviewed IS supporters and believers from England, Australia, Egypt, etc., and studied the publications of IS and the speeches of its leaders. He gives the reader a detailed worldview from the perspective of the Islamic State.
I am more familiar with Christian fundamentalists, who talk about the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus like it is going to happen any day now. IS believes that by establishing a caliphate with a leader from the specific Arabian tribe mentioned in the Koran, they are starting the events that will lead to the end of the world. Their goal was to conquer as much of the world as possible by expanding their caliphate through violent means. I learned a lot about the establishment of Islam and their beliefs by reading this book. I didn’t know that in an Islamic version of the apocalypse, the Christian Jesus also comes back to earth to lead a small fighting force of Muslims against the anti-Christ (Al-Masih ad-Dajjal). Another aspect of IS that I didn’t realize is that they believed that most other sects within Islam were also apostates, besides non-Muslims. They took pride in being “strange” and a minority of the faith, believing they were right and everyone else was wrong.
The Islamic State has a harsh justice system and the author shared a table of offenses and corresponding punishments in the book. The Koran mentions drinking wine but not murder and advises punishments to be public, hence the internet executions shared by IS.
| drinking wine/slander | Death |
| homosexuality | push off building |
| non-Muslim get stoning; Muslim -100 lashes, banished 1 year | 80 lashes |
| fornication | non-Muslim get stoned; Muslim -100 lashes, banished for 1 year |
Other things I learned from the book.
- Islam, unlike Christianity or Hinduism, encourages its followers to seek a reflection of their faith in the authority of the state. In contrast, America was founded on the principle of the separation of church and state.
- I wondered why having a dog for a pet is not popular with Uzbeks and Muslims in general. One of the interviewees quoted a hadith (collected sayings and actions of Muhammad) “If a dog drinks from your bowl, then you must wash it seven times.” Many Muslims interpret this to mean dogs are unclean.
- solipsism definition – the self is the only reality
- Like in Christianity, there are different interpretations of religious doctrine; Wood pointed out that a literalist, conservative reading of Islamic texts can yield to nonviolence as well as violence.
- Osama Bin Laden considered the Americans to be the modern Mongols.
- Wood’s opinion is that Islam is not Christianity on a five-hundred-year time delay. The Reformation that took place with Christianity is not necessarily the path Islam will take.
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