Michael Weiss & Hassan Hassan, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror

Abstract

Both the authors of the book, one being a native Syrian, and the other having intimate experience of Syrian and Iraqi officers, have provided valuable information on this contemporary issue. Western knowhow is limited on this issue as it has scant knowledge of the social structure and social psychology of the concerned people The founding fathers of extremist movements are not generally religiously motivated people; but they are nationalists mostly who in reaction against foreign domination of their land, culture and society turn to religion, and that too of the fundamentalist form having lost faith in mainstream version of their faith. The contemporary violent reaction of extremist Muslim groups is against the oppressive occupation of Israel, backed by the US and other Western countries.