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Thanks for the time in posting I will try to read as I don’t really understand the background. In your opinion do you think a Jihadist will be converted over a cup of tea and renounce his or her beliefs?Two genuine Twitter accounts that I keep tabs on in relation to terrorism are those of Peter Neumann and Shiraz Maher.
Both have considerable expertise in this area and their tweets provide informed analysis and comment, as well as alerting their followers to relevant new publications and articles.
It's a quick way of keeping abreast of developments.
A few years ago I read a whole raft of books about ISIS. Just in case anyone is interested, Neumann's brief and exceptionally readable Radicalized: New Jihadists and the Threat to the West and Maher's Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea would rate as my personal top two.
William McCants The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State was also excellent, as was Olivier Roy's Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State. Additionally, Patrick Cockburn's reportage on events in Syria and Iraq as they unfolded was first rate.
I haven't read either of them, but on the issue of homegrown terrorism, Michael Kenney's The Islamic State in Britain and Rafaello Pantucci's 'We Love Death As You Love Life': Britain's Suburban Terrorists are both meant to be very good.
Going even deeper, the vexed and controversial issue of the extent to which the actions of ISIS are grounded in Islam itself is addressed in Asma Afsaruddin's publications, especially The First Muslims: History and Memory and Contemporary Issues in Islam. Khaled Abou El Fadl's The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists is also impressive and very readable.
Finally, John Holroyd's Judging Religion offers an ethical appraisal of religion (from the perspective of an atheist) that, in my view, is especially nuanced. Julian Bond's online review of this publication is worth seeking out (for some reason, I can't post a link to it here).