Apropos of Understanding Islam, this article on ISIS is also rather illuminating:
What ISIS Really Wants
“The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.” ~ Graeme Wood (The Atlantic, March 2015).
Life Streams - Narrative and Grace... 
You may be interested in this response to Wood’s article by Caner Dagli (incidentally, one of the editors of the recently published Study Qur’an): https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/what-muslims-really-want-isis-atlantic/386156/