"In a thrilling dramatic narrative, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents. When the government of Jordan granted amnesty to a group of political prisoners in 1999, it little realized that among them was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist mastermind and soon the architect of an Islamist movement...

"Nicola, Christianne, and Marie are mothers who discovered too late that their sons had been radicalized online and had flown from the West to join the tens of thousands of foreign ISIS fighters in Syria. Too often extremists are portrayed as having sprung from the earth as irredeemable killing machines, but these women underscore the deeper truth that no one is born a terrorist, and they have themselves become activists in preventing violent radicalism....

"Anita lives in Karachi's biggest slum. Her mother is a maalish wali, paid to massage the tired bones of rich women. But Anita's life will change forever when she meets her elderly neighbour, a man whose shelves of books promise an escape to a different world. On the other side of Karachi lives Monty, whose father owns half the city and expects great things of him. But when a beautiful and rebellious girl joins his school, Monty will find his life...

A definitive account of the rescue mission to free hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls after their kidnapping by Boko Haram describes how a global social media campaign initiated with the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls prompted a dramatic worldwide intervention.

When Muslim writer and activisit Asra Nomani returns to her hometown mosque in West Virginia, she believes she sees signs of trouble: exclusion of women, intolerance toward nonbelievers, suspicion of the West. Her resulting campaign for change alienates would-be allies in the mosque, leading many to wonder who most deserves the label of “extremist.” It isn’t long before members put forward a petition to expel her from the Islamic Center of Morgantown....

At the age of 23, Ayesha Chaudhry removed her face veil to begin her studies in New York City. Braiding together Western, South Asian and Quranic storytelling styles, Chaudhry weaves her personal experiences with incisive social commentary to uncover the meaning of faith and belonging, love and betrayal, family and womanhood. In so doing, she offers us a vision of freedom that isn't measured in fabric. Chaudhry is a Professor of Gender and Islamic...

The Islamic State has stunned the world with its savagery, destructiveness, and military and recruiting successes. What explains the rise of ISIS and what does it portend for the future of the Middle East? In this book, one of the world's leading authorities on political Islam and jihadism sheds new light on these questions as he provides a unique history of the rise and growth of ISIS. Moving beyond journalistic accounts, Fawaz Gerges provides a...

The orchestrator of an annual opinion poll in the Arab world describes the profound changes taking place, including recent protests and the toppling of autocrats, and discusses how the people of the region feel about these drastic shifts.