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Books

A state of terror: Islamic State longs to be left alone to establish its blood-stained utopia

A review of Patrick Cockburn’s The Rise of the Islamic State suggests that the rise of IS was plain for all to see, but we chose not to look

31 January 2015

9:00 AM

31 January 2015

9:00 AM

The Rise of Islamic State: Isis and the New Sunni Revolution Patrick Cockburn

Verso, pp.164, £9.99

The Sykes-Picot agreement will be 100 years old next year, but there will be no congratulatory telegrams winging their way to the Middle East from London, or from Paris on high alert. The Islamic State, the world’s most powerful jihadist group, has filmed its men bulldozing border posts between Syria and Iraq, dealing perhaps the final blow to those Anglo-French cartological ambitions of a century ago.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, Tel: 08430 600033. Jonathan Rugman is foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News.

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