Plot summary
The book starts off during the second American Civil War with a Muslim soldier dying in 2017, at the battle of Newark. Flash forward to the Super Bowl in 2042 in Seattle, the capital of the new Islamic Republic, the majority of whose inhabitants have converted to Islam. The nation's culture is a fusion of traditional American and Islamic: the Super Bowl is still played, but the cheerleaders are sword-wielding men and the participants break at half-time for afternoon prayers.
As the story opens, the country is facing a crisis, with competing political and religious factions threatening to destroy the fragile peace that exists within the Islamic States of America. At the same time, behind the scenes, a messianic figure known as the Wise Old One contrives to seize power for himself, and fulfill the ancient prophecy of the restoration of the Caliphate.
The story's protagonist is Rakkim Epps, a Muslim and ex-Fedayeen shadow warrior. Epps must risk everything to save the life of Sarah Dougan, the young historian he loves.
It becomes known that it was in fact Muslim extremists who launched the attacks, including the dirty bomb in Mecca. A fourth, more powerful bomb (later found in China) was scheduled for detonation but the small group of Muslim extremists assigned the task succumbed to radiation poisoning before it could be put into play.
Once the truth was exposed, the parties stepped back from the brink and sought to find a common ground from which to start a more trusting, more open-minded dialog. Thomas "Redbeard" Dougan, Sarah's uncle, dies in the aftermath.
At the epilogue, Rakkim is in a mosque, performing his salat, or ritual prayer. There is a final showdown between Darwin, the "evil" assassin and Rakkim, with both of them almost dying. Rakkim finishes the showdown by killing Darwin with a knife throw to the face, but the rest of the ending sets up the conditions for the sequel.
The New America
After nuclear suitcase bombs completely destroy New York City and Washington D.C. and a dirty bomb irradiates Mecca the United States is split into four pieces. The Islamic Republic comprises the west coast, southwest, and most of the Midwest. After the bomb attacks were revealed to have been done by Israeli agents and many celebrity conversions (including country star "Shania X") a large proportion of the country converted to Islam. The new country was founded as a beacon of light, but has failed to live up. Civil liberties are severely curtailed with the first and second amendments removed and a Wahabi/Talibanesque religious police called the Black Robes gaining more and more power.
Jews (blamed for the destruction of Washington and New York) are ostracized and Catholics have taken the role of second class citizens. The roads are falling apart, satellite communications are often down, and the I.R. lacks scientific growth, living off excess technology stored by the former United States. The U.S. military has advanced little, with modern technology the best it can produce, the main reason that the two main power countries Russia and China avoid an attack is the elite training of the Fedayeen corps. The Fedayeen are essentially the guards of the republic, mostly made up of converts and veterans of the civil war. They are loyal to the democratic Islamic government though they are constantly courted by the extremist Black Robes whose police force are bitter rivals of the Fedeyeen. Many landmarks and warships were renamed after Islamic figures, the best example being the USS Ronald Reagan renamed the USS Osama bin Laden or Seattle's football facility is called Khomeini Stadium. It is mentioned that the new government attempted to destroy Mount Rushmore, but gave up due to the sheer size of the monument.
The Bible Belt, a partially recognised separatist republic that comprises the old south plus Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Virginia and most of Missouri disputed between itself and the Islamic State. After the transition millions of evangelical Christians immigrated here. Its government is thought to be much looser and decentralized, resembling the old Confederacy. The technology they possess is not made clear, although it is mentioned they have the only recipe for Coca-Cola.
Nevada is its own free state with a large and growing population, it serves exactly the same capacity as it does now.
The Mormon territories comprise Utah, plus parts of Colorado and Idaho. Little is mentioned about it. They may however not be a separate state, the map in the book (the UK version of the book does not contain a map) suggests they may just be an autonomous region within the Islamic Republic.
Parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California have been claimed by the Aztlan Empire (formerly Mexico) and tension between the I.R. and A.E. have risen due to land claims.
Hawaii is described in the same context as Canada so could be independent. Alaska and the most Northerly New England States are not described.
Canada has snatched some of Minnesota and Wisconsin as "ancestral lands" for its native population.
Additionally, Southern Florida has become its own state, using a flag similar to Puerto Rico or Cuba.
The Islamic Republic has long been suffering an internal war between its moderate/modern wanting to preserve its democratic traditional government and fundamentalist factions wishing to create a fundamentalist Islamic State under the strict form Sharia law.
Richard Colvin Reid, also known as the Shoe Bomber, is the perpetrator of the failed shoe bombing attempt on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young man in prison after years as a petty criminal. Later he became radicalized and went to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he trained and became a member of al-Qaeda.
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a revivalist and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qutbism, Islamic extremism, Islamic activism, but also criticized as pejorative, a term used by outsiders who instead ought to be using more positive terms such as Islamic activism or Islamic revivalism.
Daniel Pipes is an American commentator on foreign policy and the Middle East. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its Middle East Quarterly journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the Middle East as well as criticism of Islam.
While freedom of religion is de jure symbolically enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution, it de facto faces many prohibitions and restrictions. A Malay in Malaysia must strictly be a Muslim, and they cannot convert to another religion. Islamic religious practices are determined by official Sharia law, and Muslims can be fined by the state for not fasting or refusing to pray. The country does not consider itself a secular state and that Islam is the state religion of the country, and individuals with no religious affiliation are viewed with hostility.
The Jammat-al-Muslimeen is a radical extremist Islamist fundamentalist group in Trinidad and Tobago.
Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Persecution of Christians in the post–Cold War era refers to the persecution of Christians from 1989 to the present. Part of a global problem of religious persecution, persecution of Christians in this era is taking place in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Middle East.
Wasfi Tal was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 and 1970 until his assassination in 1971.
Robert Ferrigno is an American author of crime novels and of speculative fiction. Eight books published between 1990 and 2004 were additions to the detective and thriller genres, while the post 9/11 'Assassin trilogy' is set in an imagined United States dominated by Islam.
Fadā'iyān-e Islam is a Shia fundamentalist group in Iran with a strong activist political and terrorist orientation. The group was founded in 1946, and registered as a political party in 1989. It was founded by a theology student nicknamed Navvab Safavi. Safavi sought to purify Islam in Iran by ridding it of 'corrupting individuals' by means of carefully planned assassinations of certain leading intellectual and political figures.
Mustafa Shalabi was a founder of several charities alleged to have links to terrorism who was found murdered on February 25, 1991.
Numerous civilians, including men, women, children, government officials, activists, secular intellectuals and clerics have been victims of assassination, terrorism, or violence against non-combatants, over the course of modern Iranian history. Among the most notable acts of terrorism in Iran in the 20th century have been the 1978 Cinema Rex fire and the 1990s chain murders of Iran.
After the death of Muhammad in 632, a group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Sunnis, believed that Muhammad's successor as caliph of the Islamic community should be Abu Bakr, whereas a second group of Muslims, who would come to be known as the Shias, believed that his successor should have been Ali ibn Abi Talib. This dispute spread across various parts of the Muslim world, which eventually led to the Battle of Jamal and Battle of Siffin. Sectarianism based on this historic dispute intensified greatly after the Battle of Karbala, in which Husayn ibn Ali and some of his close partisans, including members and children of Muhammad's household, were killed by the ruling Umayyad Caliph Yazid I, and the outcry for revenge divided the early Islamic community, albeit disproportionately, into two groups, the Sunni and the Shia. This is known today as the Islamic schism.
The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left is a 2007 book about Ed Husain's five years as an Islamist. The book has been described as "as much a memoir of personal struggle and inner growth as it is a report on a new type of extremism." Husain describes his book as explaining "the appeal of extremist thought, how fanatics penetrate Muslim communities and the truth behind their agenda of subverting the West and moderate Islam."
In mid-June 2007, Salman Rushdie, the British-Indian novelist and author of the novel The Satanic Verses, was created a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II. Soon after the news of the knighthood was released protests against the honour were held in Malaysia and in Pakistan where effigies of the writer were publicly burnt. On 19 June 2007, governments in both Pakistan and Iran summoned their British ambassadors to officially protest against the award. While many groups and individuals have renewed the call to execute Rushdie, the author "is not commenting on the latest threats to his life. It is understood he is anxious not to inflame the situation". When asked by the Associated Press if his silence was at the request of the British government, Rushdie replied by e-mail stating "The British authorities have not asked me to do or not do anything. I have simply chosen to remain out of this storm for the moment. And nobody is turning anything down." The media noted in July 2007 that Rushdie "has not been seen in public since the 16 June announcement of his knighthood." However, he was photographed receiving his knighthood formally the next year at a ceremony which, breaking with tradition, was not announced in advance of his attendance.
My Friend the Fanatic is a travel narrative by the Indian-American author Sadanand Dhume about his exploration of Islamic extremism in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. Dhume's travel companion is a young Javanese, an Osama bin Laden admirer who edits the country's foremost fundamentalist magazine.
Fedayeen al-Islam was a militant group in Pakistan under the leadership of Hakimullah Mehsud, who was a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) prior to Baitullah's death. After Baitullah's death in August 2009, Hakimullah assumed leadership of the TTP.
Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the U.S. government and a focus of many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign Islamic terrorist organizations, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since the September 11 terror attacks, the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremist and jihadist networks within the United States.
Persecution of Sufis over the course of centuries has included acts of religious discrimination, persecution, and violence both by Sunni and Shia Muslims, such as destruction of Sufi shrines, tombs and mosques, suppression of Sufi orders, murder, and terrorism against adherents of Sufism in a number of Muslim-majority countries. The Republic of Turkey banned all Sufi orders and abolished their institutions in 1925, after Sufis opposed the new secular order. The Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed Sufis, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of "governance of the jurist".
