What to read about jihad

A novel may be best

I’m intrigued by the reading list put together by The Economist on global jihadism.

There was the usual clutch of non-fiction books, such as ‘ The New Threat’, by Jason Burke, on how jihadism has evolved since 9/11, and Gilles Kepel’s ‘ Jihad: the trail of Political Islam ‘.

More interesting to me, as an assiduous reader of novels, is the recommendation of a fictional attempt to understand the appeal of jihadism.

Elnathan John’s 2016 debut novel ‘ Born on a Tuesday ‘ is set in northern Nigeria, a region that suffers the atrocities of Boko Haram.

The protagonist Dantala, whose name translates as born on a Tuesday, attends a madrassa, lives with a gang of street boys and eventually falls under the sway of a radical preacher. From there on in, events familiar and unfamiliar start to unfold. There is a foretaste of Dantala’s personal journey in the Rumi quote with which the novel begins:

So you should taste the filtered lightand work your way toward wisdomwith no personal covering.That’s how y…