Religious Studies Professor Challenges Much Discussed Atlantic Cover Story on ISIS

“What ISIS Really Wants” by Graeme Wood, contributing editor to the magazine.

Dagli states that Wood’s essay implied that such a rejection of ISIS — The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) — by other Muslims can only be hypocritical or naive, and that ISIS members and supporters follow the texts of Islam as faithfully and seriously as anyone.

Dagli, whose forthcoming book, “The Study Quran” will be published in the fall of 2015, argues that ISIS does not take the texts of the Quran seriously. He writes, “Wood expands on his impression of the religious seriousness of ISIS fighters by pointing out that they speak in coded language, which in reality consists of ‘specific traditions and texts of early Islam.’ Speeches are ‘laced with theological and legal discussion.’ But there is a wide chasm between someone who ‘laces’ his conversations with religious imagery (very easy) and someone who has actually studied and understood the difficulties and nuances of an immense textual tradition (very hard). I personally know enough Shakespeare to ‘lace’ my conversations with quotations from Hamlet and the sonnets. Does that make me a serious Shakespeare scholar? I can ‘code’ my language with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but is that proof of my assiduousness in relation to the Bard?”

On Feb. 27, the day the article was posted, it was the second most popular article on The Atlantic, after the original cover story.

Dagli also wrote an op-ed for CNN about whether or not Muslims should condemn terrorist acts, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Prior to coming to Holy Cross in 2008, Dagli served for a year as an interfaith affairs consultant at the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan. While in Jordan, he provided consultative support to HM King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and his special advisor HRH Ghazi bin Muhammad and performed tasks related to interfaith and Islamic affairs for Jordan’s vision of interfaith understanding and cooperation. He has been actively involved in the Common Word Initiative promoting interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians.