Summary of Joby Warrick's Black Flags

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 When he was assigned to the prison, Dr. Sabha was warned about the dangerous inmates. The leader of the sect was a religious scholar named Maqdisi, who was capable of infecting and twisting minds like a Muslim Rasputin.

#2 The doctor began seeing patients, and learned that the group’s core consisted of about two dozen men who had been members of radical Islamic sects that sprang up in Jordan in the early 1990s. Their individual histories were unimpressive.

#3 The leaders of the Zarqa Group, as they were called, were arrested before they could carry out their first operation. The other groups’ targets consisted of small-time symbols of Western corruption. They shared a common creed, an austere brand of Islam invented by Maqdisi.

#4 Maqdisi’s ideas began to solidify, and he began to call for the killing of Arab leaders who were allegedly apostates, meaning they were not following Islam properly. He would often compliment Zarqawi on his toughness, and the two would become close.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822506329

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Insights on Joby Warrick's Black Flags

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When he was assigned to the prison, Dr. Sabha was warned about the dangerous inmates. The leader of the sect was a religious scholar named Maqdisi, who was capable of infecting and twisting minds like a Muslim Rasputin.

#2

The doctor began seeing patients, and learned that the group’s core consisted of about two dozen men who had been members of radical Islamic sects that sprang up in Jordan in the early 1990s. Their individual histories were unimpressive.

#3

The leaders of the Zarqa Group, as they were called, were arrested before they could carry out their first operation. The other groups’ targets consisted of small-time symbols of Western corruption. They shared a common creed, an austere brand of Islam invented by Maqdisi.

#4

Maqdisi’s ideas began to solidify, and he began to call for the killing of Arab leaders who were allegedly apostates, meaning they were not following Islam properly. He would often compliment Zarqawi on his toughness, and the two would become close.

#5

Zarqawi and his group had very different personalities. Zarqawi was a physically compact man who had fought bravely in Afghanistan, and his reputation for impulsive violence had followed him into prison. He began memorizing the Koran, and his diffuse rage took on a focus: a fierce, single-minded hatred for perceived enemies of Allah.

#6

There was another side to Zarqawi, one that was rarely seen. He would sometimes act like a little boy when his mother visited, preparing for days and cleaning his clothes. He would also care for the sick and injured among his men.

#7

In 1998, the prison began receiving scores of new inmates as officials sought to relieve overcrowding elsewhere in the system. The Islamists remained cloistered together, but subtle cracks began to appear. Some of the jihadists were openly suggesting that Zarqawi should be the leader, replacing Maqdisi.

#8

When Dr. Sabha freed Zarqawi’s arms, he proceeded with his examination. He began to roll up one of the prisoner’s sleeves to draw a blood sample, but was stopped again by Zarqawi.

#9

The Ikhwan, an Islamic army, had been trained by Saudi Arabia’s first monarch, Ibn Saud, to help him defeat his political rivals. They saw themselves as divinely appointed to purify the region by slaughtering all who allied with foreigners or deviated from their narrow vision of Islam.