The ever-productive Martin Marty Centre at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago has offered a powerful article in its ‘Sightings’ series on what can and cannot be known and understood about IS/ISIS at present.
The ever-productive Martin Marty Centre at the Divinity School in the University of Chicago has offered a powerful article in its ‘Sightings’ series on what can and cannot be known and understood about IS/ISIS at present.
Beyond sensationalised headlines and panic military responses, Alireza Doostdar, who is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion at Chicago, argues that “the view that one particular religious doctrine is uniquely extremist will not help us understand the cycles of brutality that have fed on years of circulating narratives and images of torture, violent murder, and desecration.”
You can read the whole article here: https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/how-not-understand-isis-alireza-doostdar
See also the comments of Ekklesia associate and regional adviser Dr Harry Hagopian in ‘IS/ISIS in the wider context of Palestine and the Middle East’: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20891
* More on IS/ISIS from Ekklesia here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/isis