Quotes from the most important and insightful book I have read of late

All from Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers - Encounters with the Islamic State

...London. It was then, and perhaps still is, the world capital for certain types of loudmouth jihadis, -- the types to have been exiled from their own countries, less often for their odious political views than because they simply would not shut up. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p 152

War is deception - Hadith, Bukhari 3029, Muslim,58 quoted in Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p165

If Islamic State support is a communicable disease, an infection of the mind, then (Ajem) Chowdary is its Typhoid Mary. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p179

The problem was not, and  has never been a failure of mainstream Muslims to condemn terrorism, or to denounce the Islamic State. The problem is their reluctance to seriously acknowledge or engage with the Islamic State intellectually. Instead their defence of Islam is typified by the refrain, "Islam is a religion of peace'' combined with happy talk about mercy and love. They do not address the scriptures Islamic State cites about war or hate. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p215

... this militancy ... has everything to do with religion: misguided, fanatical, ideological and politicised religion. It is the religion of resentment, envy, powerlessness and nihilism. It does however have nothing to do with the merciful teachings of our Prophet ... - Hamza Yusuf, The Plague Within  quoted in Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p216

Islam is not science but religion. It is highly - though not infinitely - malleable, with no definite conclusions. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p243

The current horror show in Syria is, at best, the beginning of another cycle of religious war. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p245