It seems that hardly a day goes by in which the Islamic State, also
known as ISIS or ISIL, doesn’t appear in a newspaper or on a TV
news screen. And the news is always bad -- hideous death and wanton
destruction of a type rarely seen in modern history.
So, what is the Islamic State? Where did it come from? What does it
want? And why? Let’s try to answer these questions in turn.
First, ISIS is the illegitimate child of Saddam Hussein’s regime
and al Qaeda. Saddam’s former military and intelligence officers
hold many of ISIS’s most senior positions and have overseen the
group’s rise to prominence. In 2002 and early 2003, some al Qaeda
members relocated from Afghanistan to Iraq, where they prepared to
fight the Americans, who toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in March
2003. These jihadists became known as al Qaeda in Iraq when their
leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi swore his allegiance to Osama bin Laden
in 2004. Zarqawi, a murderous psychopath, was finally killed by US
and Iraqi forces in June 2006. Following his death, al Qaeda in
Iraq was rebranded as the Islamic State of Iraq.
In 2010 a new leader took control of the group -- Abu Bakr al
Baghdadi. Taking advantage of the power vacuum left by the complete
US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and the Syrian Civil War that began
that same year, Baghdadi and his lieutenants greatly expanded the
size and scope of the organization. At first, Baghdadi was loyal to
al Qaeda’s senior leadership. But in 2013 he defied orders from his
superiors and declared that his group was now the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria or Levant, known by its acronyms ISIS and ISIL. It’s
worth noting that ISIS continues to market Osama bin Laden’s
endorsement of them to this day.
What does ISIS want and why? ISIS is attempting to resurrect an
empire similar to those that arose in Islam’s early history. These
empires were referred to as “caliphates” and led by a “Caliph,” the
Muslims’ chief ruler, also known as the “Emir of the Faithful.”
This is, in fact, how Baghdadi’s followers now refer to him.
ISIS relies on a rich Islamic mythology, with citations from
Islamic texts, to justify its actions and portray itself as the
true heirs of Mohammed. Their propaganda videos use Islam’s early
history to frame their actions as part of an ongoing conflict with
the “Crusaders.” ISIS’s leaders want their followers to believe
they are fighting as part of this same religious war. When ISIS’s
Libyan branch executed 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in 2015, ISIS
advertised the slayings in a video titled, “A Message Signed With
Blood to the Nation of the Cross” – “the Nation of the Cross,” of
course, meaning Christians. That's why on Libya’s Mediterranean
shores, the lead executioner of the Egyptian Coptic Christians
pointed his knife in the direction of Italy and promised to conquer
Rome, the symbolic seat of Christendom.
Despite seeking to spark an inter-faith war, however, most of
ISIS’s victims are Muslims, especially Shiite Muslims for whom
ISIS, which is Sunni Muslim, harbors a special animosity. ISIS
claims that any Muslim who does not swear bay’ah (an oath of
allegiance) to Baghdadi is an “infidel” or an “apostate.” Even
ISIS’s rival jihadists in al Qaeda are considered apostates,
because they refuse to genuflect to Baghdadi.