BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Mind of the Islamic State by Prof. Robert Manne’

‘The Mind of the Islamic State‘ by Prof. Robert Manne is published by Redback Quarterly, an imprint of Schwarz Publishing, Carlton, 2016 (PB, 192pp, RRP $22.99)

If you want to sort Salafism from Wahhabism, and da’wah from fiqh in a short account of internecine rhetoric and violent politics, this is your book.

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This book is a deep examination, by a local writer we know as a sober intellectual, of the inspirational writings and activity behind the contemporary brutality that lures some religious-minded people to shocking acts.

Being a student of the Holocaust and investigator of 20^th Century ideologies, Manne is on a similar path to the previous author but more tolerant of political actors who use democratic means, he doesn’t like the term Islamist because it joins parliamentary operators such as the Muslim Brotherhood with revolutionary jihadists. “Radical Islam” is also rejected because it is ambiguous as to political or theological provenance.

He pays close attention to precise definitions and careful taxonomy; the Koranic and Arabic glossary is here, and the text is replete with endnotes. He has also closely read the primary texts of Islamist leaders of the past 100 years, including Qutb, bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri, in what might be called an exegesis of their theology as well as a record of their debates. The political and activist history of the main players is recounted.

Robert Manne is emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. His recent books include Making Trouble: Essays Against the New Complacency, and The Words that Made Australia (as co-editor). He has written three Quarterly Essays and is a regular contributor to the Monthly and the Guardian.

Much of his forensic examination is of the chilling quarterly online Islamic State journal Dabiq — chilling because it is a sophisticated intellectual magazine with an apocalyptic vision. Here you can find discussion of technical manuals, with names such as The Management of Savagery and Jurisprudence of the Blood.The book has an objective empirical style you might expect from the Rand Corporation or our own Office of National Assessments, but is still accessible to the general reader.

If you want to sort Salafism from Wahhabism, and da’wah from fiqh in a short account of internecine rhetoric and violent politics, this is your book.

‘The Mind of the Islamic State‘ by Prof. Robert Manne is published by Redback Quarterly, an imprint of Schwarz Publishing, Carlton, 2016 (PB, 192pp, RRP $22.99)