Most of the Koran has multiple potential meanings like the sura I quoted in the previous post, which makes recommending a single source about any aspect of Islam kind of a touchy issue. A while back, a friend asked me to recommend a book that would give a good introduction to Islamism. I wanted to say Jansen’s The Neglected Duty, which contains an English translation of Muhammad 'Abdus Salam Faraj's Al-Faridah al-Gha’ibah along with a lot of background and discussion from other Muslims. (There are some quotes from it and a link to a bookstore where you can buy just the Faridah at the Islamist Watch website--the title is translated as The Absent Obligation there.) But Jansen’s book is out of print and scarce, so it seemed a bit beside the point to recommend it. I’d say, just poke through some of the documents on the Islamist Watch site, but the problem is, no context is provided, and especially no information that lets you understand both how perverse this particular interpretation of Islam is, yet also how compelling. I think maybe I want to recommend The Veil and the Male Elite by Fatima Mernissi for starters. It’s a feminist reinterpration of the Koran and Hadith and a vivid recounting of early Islamic history. She is always clear about what the tradition has been, and which parts are her own interpretation, so although it is a heterodox text, it’s nonetheless a good, memorable introduction to the subject matter. Maybe read that, and read some of the stuff on the site linked above, and you’ll probably be able to see how everything resonates. Also, see Emmanuel Sivan’s Radical Islam, for important context about Ibn Taymiyya (a medieval Islamic jurist, and an important legitimating source for Wahhabism and Islamist thought in general) and the history of the Islamist movement.