From its birth in the late 1990s as the jihadist dream of terrorist leader Abu M
usab al Zarqawi, the Islamic State (known by a variety of names, including ISIS,
ISIL, and al Qaeda in Iraq) has grown into a massive enterprise, redrawing nati
onal borders across the Middle East and subjecting an area larger than the Unite
d Kingdom to its own vicious brand of Sharia law.
In "The Islamist Phoenix," w
orld-renowned terrorism expert Loretta Napoleoni takes us beyond the headlines,
demonstrating that while Western media portrays the Islamic State as little more
than a gang of thugs on a winning streak, the organization is proposing a new m
odel for nation building. Waging a traditional war of conquest to carve out the
21st-century version of the original Caliphate, IS uses modern technology to rec
ruit and fundraise while engaging the local population in the day-to-day running
of the new state.
