My latest book, The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS, continues to attract notice from those in the know, and is today designated “#1 New Release in Islamic History.” It is available at any self-respecting bookstore, as well as at Amazon.com in paperback (order here) and on Kindle (order here).
Here are the details and some advance reviews:
ISIS Wants Your Head
It’s the world’s most spectacularly successful terrorist group—and the most mysterious. ISIS rocketed onto the world stage seemingly out of nowhere, beheading American hostages, bulldozing international borders, routing the American-trained Iraqi Army, carving out a new state that rules eight million people and a territory larger than the United Kingdom, perpetrating genocide, reviving slavery, pulverizing ancient monuments, and persuading its followers to carry out terror attacks in New York and Texas. But who are they? Where did ISIS come from, and how did they rise to power in so little time? What is driving them—and how can they be stopped?
Now New York Times bestselling author Robert Spencer reveals the blood-drenched history and inner workings of the Islamic State—its military conquests, how it is financing its expansion, the significance of the newly declared caliphate and its long roots in Muslim history, and the ideology that is driving its success. As Spencer reveals, the Islamic State has taken the first steps on the path to becoming a world power—steps that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda dreamed of but were afraid to take. The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS is your one-stop easy reference for all you need to know about ISIS—and how to stop its reign of terror.
ROBERT SPENCER is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of fourteen books on Islam and jihad. Spencer has led seminars on Islam and jihad for the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, United States Central Command, and other intelligence and military groups.
“As always, Robert Spencer is scholarly, thorough, fearless, and insistent in making sure we know the Islamic State. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.”
—ANDREW C. McCARTHY, contributing editor of National Review and New York Times bestselling author of The Grand Jihad, Willful Blindness, and Islam and Free Speech“Contains everything the people of the free world need to know about the foremost threat to freedom, and to every free person. This book shows how ISIS plans to sow murder and mayhem—and above all, how it can and must be stopped.”
—GEERT WILDERS, member of parliament in the Netherlands and leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV)“ISIS is here. If sanity still prevailed in our government and media, this book would be required reading for all elected officials and journalists.”
—PAMELA GELLER, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative
Brian says
Congratulations on taking the no.1 spot!
Lia Wissing says
I’m reading it on my tablet: well-written, concisely explained, no whitewash in sight! Thank you, Mr Spencer!
cs says
Surely a lot of kuffar will be enlighten by the book, despite the fact no one wants to confront the disturbing reality of Islam, surely it is painful, it provokes cognitive dissonance, though we got to confront it.
mortimer says
The ‘cognitive dissonance’ is the difference between what Saudi Arabia says and does. They say (to Western diplomats) that Islam is a religion of peace, but they publish school text that teach military world conquest. Those texts are used around the world in Saudi-financed schools. Saudis have created the modern jihad movement. This movement ‘Salafism’ is now the most virulent form of Islam. Salafism is based on foundational Islam and may even be called ‘Foundational Islam’.
cs says
But surely this book will add critical mass to the debate on Islam in a very positive way.
harbidoll says
$audi Arabia is the “great satan” & even Iran, the “little satan” seem too much for us. I keep hoping there is a plan Behind the events but don’t see any & beginning to lose hope!
Don McKellar says
Has anybody forwarded a copy of this to Jim Kerry or Joe Biden? Neither one of them seems to “get it”. However, their boss does — obviously.
mortimer says
All those endorsing the book talk about how ISIS can be stopped. I don’t believe it can be stopped without destroying the Islamic faith of most Muslims. ISIS theology is normative Sunnite Islam and the caliph Al Baghdadi is one of the most thorough Islamic theologians in the world. It cannot be said ISIS is not Islamic for that reason.
Deprogramming Muslims is the critical element in the war against terror and is the final solution to terrorism worldwide.
RonaldB says
” I don’t believe it can be stopped without destroying the Islamic faith of most Muslims…”
The Islamic State expanded in the territory formerly controlled by government which the US, in its stupidity, helped to depose: Iraq, Syria (ongoing), Libya…So, in a real sense, the Islamic State is a function of the US government.
The best way to limit the Islamic State is through rival governments or tribes strong enough to protect their own borders. The Iraqi Shi’ite militias, with the help of Iran, the Syrian government, the Kurdish State: all are strong limitations on the expansion of the Islamic State.
The Islamic State inspires terror through its horrific treatment of prisoners. Rival Muslims are the most likely group to match the brutalities of the Islamic State. It would be a huge mistake to try to impose Western standards on Muslim militias…almost as large a mistake as sending an actual army to fight and occupy the Islamic State and its territory. It is not possible to change Islam, but it is possible to let it remain divided and to isolate it to its present territories.
Felix Quigley says
the most obvious thing about the rise of the Islamic State is that the area it has taken over is that left vacant in a leadership sense by the Bush “conquering” of Iraq, the following Obama washing his hands of the previous, the other wars of the West especially the war on Yugoslavia in the 1990s involving the support for the “Islamic State” of Izetbegovic against the Serbs, the advance into Kosovo by NATO, the creation of Giant Lies such as the “Srebrenica Massacre” and the “Racak Massacre” by the CIA and MI5, the complete destruction from the inside of a free and investigatory media, all creating the basis for the Orange “Revolutions” leading into the Arab “Spring”. All of this was prefaced by the breaking down of the nation state by the dictatorship of the “Common” Market, now the EU, and the present Media driven drive of millions of violent Muslims into European countries, itself perfect ground for the future Caliphate in Europe as well. With present rulers it is as good as there.
BC says
“State has taken the first steps on the path to becoming a world power”
I appreciate and respect your work Mr Spencer but this is hyperbole. World power, how so? IS is hemmed in by Iran to the East, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt to the South and Turkey to the North. Not to mention the Kurds who seem to be the only people really fighting IS successfully. Even if it managed to break through to the North it will come up against Russian power It has no fleet and no air power. If it attempt leave Iraq/Syria it would be annihilated. Unless of course Nato and US supinely permit it. Nigeria is richer and better organised than IS but we do not call it a world power
Iran is much closer to becoming a ‘world power’ and with nuclear weapons! Plus Iran is the implacable enemy of IS as it is Shia. I think Obama is banking on Iran dealing with IS so he does not get his hands dirty. He wants to leave office without starting a major conflict involving the US
kay says
Re: “State has taken the first steps on the path to becoming a world power”
I appreciate and respect your work Mr Spencer but this is hyperbole.
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You just don’t get it. The bad guys have hundreds of millions of supporters. They are not even a regional power right now. But if they take and hold Damascus and become strong in Libya then they become a regional power. This could happen in eighteen months.
If they manage to break a major part of New York City with a tactical nuke that would collapse the American economy and change the global balance of power. It’s not impossible. That would be a highest priority for them and an enormous bad guy win.
Using modern communications technology and large numbers of European sympathizers they can soon cause very serious problems for Europe. Europe has to degrade Islamic State.
Any large scale movements in support for Islamic State within Egypt or Turkey would be extremely dangerous. The situation in South Central Asia could become extremely dangerous. And soon.
There are several ways they could begin to break out of the geographical box. Particularly since opposition has been so weak and ineffective in Nigeria, Libya, and so forth.
Islamic State becomes very powerful by breaking stuff, intimidating nations, developing cadres in foreign nations and inspiring the faithful worldwide. We must deprive them of their oxygen, economic channels and trade routes.
We need the peoples of Nigeria, Egypt, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan and Turkey to reject and directly oppose Islamic State. I don’t see that happening. Turkey has been an active supporter of Islamic State for over a year! And the Sunni in Syria typically co-operate with Islamic State.
The Iranian / Shia opposition to Islamic State has been pathetic. The Shia have failed miserably.
Everything has gone the wrong way.
What I see is major and growing support for cultural and military jihad in different parts of the world. Every kid who is indoctrinated into Sharia and jihad becomes something of a threat. We are fighting an entire global culture of jihad and Sharia and we can expect things to get much worse in North Africa and Europe in the next ten years.
Right now Islamic State DOES have regional power, and they CAN grow a lot. All they need is a quarter million jihadis actively backed by twenty million supporters.
At present people spend more time arguing whether this is real Islam and whether it is a threat to Europe or America than actually addressing the clear and present danger.
The Vatican and Canterbury ( Anglican Church ) are basically collaborationist and appeasers. People like Pamela Geller and Geert Wilders are in bunker mode while free speech is under attack, and while European anti-Islamic protests and street protests get hammered. Four counter-Islam bloggers have been killed in Bangladesh alone. It is very hard or impossible to establish counter-Islamic groups in any Islamic country.
I think the Islamofascists are doing great worldwide, while the counter-jihad movement is struggling to get basic respect and to present a public case. Somehow everybody loves, aids or abets the fascists while the good guys get hammered and beaten down. We can’t even protect the Christians or little schoolgirls.
The point is that ORGANIZED opposition to Islamic State and Islamofascism is extremely weak and difficult to advance. And the bad guys continue to push forward on many fronts. That is their power.
kay says
Have promoted this book online in front of thousands. Expect to do so about twenty times this Fall.
NOTE: We NEED this book in French, Spanish, Italian and German. Even tho English is a common language for Europe. < < <
I have seen Robert Spencer videos. He really knows his stuff.
It is necessary to emphasize that Islamic State jihad and Islamic State Sharia are classical and authentic.
The background for that argument was well established by Andrew Bostom.
But we needed a book analysis specifically for Islamic State by someone who really knows their stuff.
If I were CAIR or Southern Poverty Law Center I would be sweating bricks right now.
We win the crucial fight for oxygen in the public square by presenting strong evidence and daring any and all to break the good guy narrative.
Which is that all Islamic State praxis is classical stuff that Mohammed the Desert Pirate emphatically endorses as the primary set of principles, models and priorities for all good Muslims.
We make the equation
Islamic State = classical Islam = modern Islamic praxis.
This book needs to cover Africa. If it doesn't, then another edition is really needed next year. Just sayin'.
Also needed would be a resources directory if not already provided.
Things will get much worse. Events move quickly. Europe is at great risk.
Boko Haram sends militants to ISIS in Libya as map shows horror plan for global domination
http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/?p=1493
From The Religion of Peace
June 25th thru July 25th 2015 : Recent Islamic fascist terrorist attacks in Syria and Iraq.
Well over a thousand civilian casualties murdered in cold blood by Sunni / Salafist psychopaths under the "lawful" rule of Islamic State / Islamic Sharia legal code.
Summary of terrorist attacks recent Sunni / Salafist / Islamic State actions in Iraq and Syria.
Slaughters of families in their own homes. Mothers burned alive with their children.
Assassinations of Christians, journalists, a doctor and a rival imam.
Bomb blasts at markets, a power plant and a swimming pool.
Murders at a school, a restaurant and a bus stop. Murder of construction workers by slitting their throats.
Murder of dissidents. Crucifixions for not obeying the Ramadan Islamic daytime fast.
Islamic State women enforcers beating a woman to death for lifting her veil to read a grocery item label.
Time to light the beacons.
LOTR: The Return of the King – Lighting of the Beacons
Angemon says
This is a much more fitting category than “radical politics”.
Once again, congratulations, Mr. Spencer 🙂