Understanding extremism

BLACK FLAGS:
The Rise of ISIS
By Joby Warrick
Corgi. 480 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 0 552 172 882

Names such as Abu-Musad al-Zarqawi, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and al-Nusra have become familiar to anyone keeping abreast of world affairs.

They are all players within the ever more turbulent and violent landscape of the Middle East. Yet I suspect that very few of us understand the relationships between the various factions and key players of these Islamist groups, how they have come into being and what their distinctive ideologies are.

Joby Warrick is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist who is the national security reporter for The Washington Post, and in this brilliantly written narrative he traces the origins of ISIS from the brutal activities of the sadistic Jordanian, al-Zarqawi, who established the first incarnation of the ISIS we are so familiar with today.

As well as describing the rise and spread of ISIS and the other militant groups, Warrick remorselessly reveals how Western action, or often inaction, contributed to the flourishing of this vile regime. Reading it, as I did, very soon after the Chilcott Report on the war in Iraq was timely, to say the least.

Utterly compelling

Warrick’s research and inside knowledge is remarkable and expansive, but in no way does it make the account turgid. In fact, I had to keep reminding myself that this was a work of non-fiction and not an action-packed novel. It is a page-turner and, from the very first page, when he recounts the order for the execution of the female bomber involved in the carnage of Amman’s Raddison Hotel in 2006, I found it utterly compelling. It has enlightened me about the context of current affairs and I strongly commend this book to anyone who wants to get a better handle on these world-shaping events and people. Indeed, I would go so far as to describe it as indispensable.