"Tarek Fatah has dared to question the received wisdom about the centrality of the Islamic State to the destiny of the universal Muslim community. He shows through painstaking, meticulous research that the sooner the Muslims rid themselves of the deadweight of wasteful and vain centuries of tribal and clannish feuds and sectarian strife in the name of true Islam and the Islamic state the greater will be their chances of getting out of the rut of obscurantism and fanaticism. Like all other civilized religious communities of the world the Muslims too need to adopt secularism and pluralism as an integral part of their social and political orders. I am sure this book will generate much-needed critical discussion on political Islam."

- Ishtiaq Ahmed
  Professor of Political Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden / Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the ISAS, Singapore.