ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam. Erick Stakelbeck. Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2015. Pp. 207.
Sarah Akram
Erick Stakelbeck sheds light on how ISIS has engulfed the Middle East and the danger it poses to the world at large. Stakelbeck delves deep into the origins of the ISIS and uncovers facts about the world’s most dangerous organisation and its designs to establish its rule in every part of the world. The book also explains how ISIS has managed to recruit thousands of foreign fighters, and how, surprisingly, it is attracting westerners in large numbers. Stakelbeck explores the phenomenon that is ISIS and how its bloodthirsty ideology has been successful in recruiting thousands of members as well as legal slaves. He also throws light on how big a threat the United States faces from ISIS and how it must preempt this threat.
The book is a riveting account, told like a story from the journalist’s mouth that captures the reader’s attention. ISIS is xenophobic and bigoted. Its use of barbaric means is aimed at annihilating the “other.” The book starts by explaining the concept of the Caliphate that drives the ISIS to envision a global kingdom, an idea alien to the West and even to the Muslim world at large. However, some extremist groups have started swearing allegiance to ISIS, which shows its acceptability among some other pariah groups in Muslim countries. The main aim of the group is to spread its ideology by force, and to spread it as far as possible. As the book moves on, it explains the ruthless strategy of ISIS that employs religion as a guiding force while interpreting the Holy Scripture in its own way.
