"What distinguishes the interpretive approach of
groups like ISIS from others is not its literalism (Sufis
are indeed the most "literal" of all such interpreters
of the Quran) but its narrowness and rigidity; for the
adherents of ISIS, the Quran means exactly one thing,
and other levels of meaning or alternate
interpretations are ruled out a priori . This is not
literalism. It is exclusivism..."
