Graeme Wood’s book does what it says in the subtitle and offers a series of “encounters with the Islamic State”. The media has taken to calling Daesh “the so-called Islamic State”, which carries the suggestion that the state is not really Islamic. That position is stated very bluntly in the opening pages, where Wood reproduces a schematic diagram of “The Islamic State View of Humanity”. • The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State by Graeme Wood is published by Allen Lane (£20). • The Raqqa Diaries: Escape from ‘Islamic State’ by Samer is published by Hutchinson (£9.99).

Source: The Guardian March 13, 2017 07:30 UTC