Title: The Hollow Kingdom ISIS and the Cult of Jihad
Author: Edna Fernandes
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Price: Rs 499
Pages: 254
It is a well-researched book, which gives historical background of the origin and growth of Islam along with violence embedded in it. It races the origin of Wahabism and Salafism and their role in Islamic Terror. The author does not hesitate to place the fact as it is and exposes the hypocrisy, for example, ‘The religious ideologies of ISIS and the Saudi regime have little difference between them, yet one is the enemy and the other an ally’. The good part is that the author doesn’t make empty statements but provided full facts along with the background of her arguments.
The author talks about the root of global jihad in India, facts which even the current government doesn’t want to accept. “The ulema graduating from Deoband have served the cause of Islam by opening madrassas to enlighten Muslims and prepare them for jihad,’ the author further writes ‘The first Darul Uloom’ or ‘house of Knowledge’ was set up in Deoband, northern India, in 1866. Nine years after the Indian revolt of 1857’. ‘What started in a small village as a rejection of Western imperialist hegemony was more than 160 years later resonating across the Muslim world.’ ‘It was the Deobandis that spiritually guided the Taliban, as Wahabis guided ISIS’. Author describes the three stages of road to Islamic State.
Stage 1: Vexation and Exhaustion
Stage 2: Administration of Regions of Savagery
Stage 3: A lasting global caliphate
The reader will realise that India is currently in the second stage. This analysis makes the book a must read for every thinking India. The book covers in details the role of USA, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and other nations in helping the growth of Jihad and ISIS. The funding of ISIS by ‘blood antiquities’ is unbelievable but true. The so-called prestigious museums from across the word buy the statues from the plundered sites and fund ISIS to buy arms, ammunition, pay salary etc.
From first-hand experience, the author recounts the Islamic takeover of Britain and Britain’s inability to control the same. The author does try to present a picture of human Muslim, but she could get only a moderate Muslim who is gay. It is obvious that gay has no place in Islam and hence he is moderate.
The book does not hesitate to expose the role of media in the growth of ISIS. Author writes, “The ISIS media machine fed the west’s media machine and in some cases, the West’s media machine fuelled the cult of the Jihadis. It was a cycle of reciprocity – they got coverage, the media got the clicks.”
One should read the book to truly understand and appreciate the threat of Islamic terror. And yes, the ISIS Kingdom is not hollow, not yet.
