The Islamic State

The Islamic State

Terrorism involves unethical and well-calculated plans to conduct activities of insurgency, among other objectives. While terrorism activities might have existed in a different form, recording of severe terrorist attacks began towards the late 1990s and in the wake of the 21^st century. Notably, September 11, 2001, is a remarkable date when the United States realized a surprise attack by the al’ Qaeda group.

Since this attack, the world has continued to record terrorist attacks from an array of terrorist groups. Each terrorist group forms for a specific purpose or objective. Some of the famous terrorist groups include Al Qaeda, ISIS, or ISL (Islamic States) and Taliban, as well as Al Shabaab and Boko Haraam ((Bouzis, 2015). This paper discusses the Islamic State. In this regard, this paper will give a detailed analysis of the group, including its origin and evolution. This document will also examine the Islamic State’s structure and its organization’s mode of operation.

While noting that each group forms for a specific mission, this paper will examine the Islamic States’ primary targets. Further, this document communicates the impacts of this particular group on society. In most of the conventional groupings, the founder keeps the vision and drives the members toward the achievement of the group’s image. It is generally expected that when the leader of a terrorist group dies, the group should cease to function or stagger to the extent of minimizing its operation (Bouzis, 2015). As such, some of the terrorist groups have ceased to operate as soon as their leader died or eliminated. However, ISIS and other groups are still operational, and their severe conduct attacks in different parts, mainly in the middle east. This paper will thus provide a clear picture of the origin of ISIS, its evolution, and the various attacks that it has conducted since its formation.

Background

Islamic State is a terrorist formation that is referred to as using other different names. Initially, the group used to propagate its agendas and terrorist attacks under the name ISIS, which is, “The Islamic States in Iraq and Syria.” Also, other people referred to it as ISIL, “The Islamic States of Iraq and the Levant.” The group originates from the Arabic nations, and thus most of the Arabic speaking population refers to it as Da-Ish. Most of the researchers of the Islamic State and terrorist groups, in general, agree that ISIS emerged in Iraq from the Al-Qaeda group of terrorists following the U.S. invasion in the year 2003 (Ford, 2016).  Also, the historians concur that ISIS was shaped by a jihadist from Jordan and eventually by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqis Al-Qaeda leader. Notably, the Jordanian influencer propagated a dark mission and that his vision was to ignite a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis as well as founding a caliphate. Despite his murder in 2006 by the U.S. forces, the group pushed his dream until 2014 when ISI besieged eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

Nonetheless, histories concerning the ideological genesis of the Islamic State usually focus on the fact that both Osama bin Laden and Zarqawi were Sunni extremists who differed on two issues (Bouzis, 2015). Firstly, the two leaders changed the concept of waging war with the Shiites. Secondly, bin Laden and Zarqawi did not agree on ex-communications or what they called takfir. These differences escalated in Iraq and thus the split between Al Qaeda and ISIS or the Islamic State.

It is noteworthy that ISIS demographics are diverse as it has members beyond Iraq and Syria. The group draws its membership from different ethnicities and ages and that its agendas are dynamic. The group has a significant association among the followers of Saddam Hussein in Iraq during the Baathist era. After the intervention by the United States, a considerable number of Baathist proponents who did not end in the military prisons went into exile. After the withdrawal of United States forces, the weak interim government left a power vacuum (Bouzis, 2015). The later created an epitome situation for the establishment of the Islamic State or ISIS. At the time of its inception, the group was called AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq).

Former Baathists teamed up with Iraqis former members of Al Qaeda to form what became ISIS or the Islamic State. At that time, Al-Baghdadi and Al-Masri, both influential personalities in terrorist formations, including Baathist and Al Qaeda, respectively, were the leaders of the group (Khan, 2014). The two groups joined by the insurgent groups strengthened the Islamic State in Iraq. As such, speculations over the original leader of the group persist. However, the group put Omar Al-Baghdadi on the public face.

While ISIS has been developing other targets and objectives, the group’s primary goal was the Shia Muslims. In 2010, the U.S-Iraqi airstrike killed the two leaders influencing Bakr-Al-Baghdadi to take charge of the group, although a weakened AQI. Of importance, Bakr-Al-Baghdadi declared himself Caliph. Because of his education, based on his achieved college degrees in Islamic studies, he is often called the invisible sheikh. As a strategy to develop an aura of mystery, he usually covers his face.

In the year 2014, Al-Qaeda distanced itself from ISIS while retracting all its support for the group. Notably, ISIS had become so brutal and went beyond Al Qaeda’s mission. Besides, ISIS fell out with Al-Nusra Front, an AlQaeda-linked Syrian resistance group. Nonetheless, the Baathist foundations remain very strong within ISIS, where several followers of former Saddam Hussein hold strategic positions in the Islamic State group (Hashim, 2014). ISIS employs Baathists’ intelligence strategies. In the meantime, ISIS occupies most of the regions both in Syria and in Iraq while creating excess anarchy, killings, and terrorist attacks.

Origin of ISIS

ISIS is a Wahhabi or Salafi group that propagates a religious agenda against the Shia Muslims. As such, the group’s ideology is a concept of the far-reaching Salafi Islam that is a severe puritanical kind of Sunni Muslims. Before moving further, it is essential to state that the mainstream Islam or more than 80% of the Muslims, including a significant percentage of the Sunni Muslims, criticizes the undertakings of the Islamic States citing that the group is not a religious group but a terrorist group (Ford, 2016).  Various Muslim organizations such as the ING (Islamic Networks Group) in the United States strongly oppose the dealings by the Islamic State while saying that the interpretation of the sharia law by the Islamic State is not only misinformed but also contrary to the teachings of the Islamic faith.

Of importance, ISIS endorses religious viciousness and hence considers every Muslim who disagrees with the group’s ideologies as apostates or infidels. Islamic State’s viewpoint is “represented by the symbolism in the black standard variant of Muhammad’s battle flag “(Bouzis, 2015). As such, most of the researchers of the Islamic State claim that the group focuses on the restoration of early Islam’s caliphate involving entire eschatological, religious, and political ramifications.

ISIS complies with the international principles of jihadists and that the group follows the hardline concepts and ideologies of al-Qaeda as well as other jihadist organizations that are closely linked to Wahhabism (Tinnes, 2016). Of importance, ISIS leaders are explicit concerning their passionate pledge to Wahhabi undertakings of the Sunnis. In light of this, the Islamic state distributes pictures of the Wahhabi sacred texts from Saudi to the entire group of schools under their territories.

ISIL objectives include returning to early Islamic days while turning down all innovations in the Islamic faith. According to the Islamic States’ leaders, these religious innovations corrupt the original spirit. As such, the group both the Ottoman Empire and the later caliphates for contradicting what the group calls “pure Islam,” and thus seeking to rejuvenate the initial Wahhabi’s project towards the restoration of the caliphate directed by authoritarian Salafist teachings. While adhering to the Wahabi-Salafi doctrines, the Islamic State finds the secular law followers as disbelievers.

As such, the group classifies the current Saudi Arabian authorities as disbelievers. According to ISIS, only a legitimate body can become leaders of jihad. Therefore, the group claims that the first step towards taking control over other regions, including fighting non-Muslim nations, is to purify the Islamic communities. In light of this, the Islamic State regards Hama, the Palestinian Sunni group as apostates without any legitimate power to lead jihad, and thus, fighting Hamas would take precedence before take it on to Israel.

Evolution

The United Nations and other international institutions designate ISIS as a terrorist group. Islamic State if popularly recognized for its homicide videos and other forms of beheadings involving civilians and soldiers. Besides, the group has been identified as having destroyed cultural heritage sites. In northern Iraq, ISIS conducted unprecedented and historic ethnic cleansing.  By declaring itself a caliphate in June 2014, ISIL claimed political, religious, and military power over the entire Muslims across the globe (Tinnes, 2016). The United Nations, mainstream Muslim groups, and many governments criticize the adoption of both the concept of a caliphate and the name Islamic State and hence rejecting the group’s statehood.

As stated earlier, ISIS emerges as a religious group that targets the Shia Muslims. In Syria, For example, ISIL carried out ground attacks on both the government military and the opposition groups. Around December 2015, the group held an extensive area from eastern Syria to western Iraq while silencing more than 10 million people within that region. Across this region, ISIS enforced its understanding of sharia law (Hashim, 2014). Beyond Iraq and Syria, ISIS is believed to have its following and hence operations in more than 20 countries across the world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Egypt, and Mali, as well as the Philippines and Indonesia. By the year 2015, the group was estimated to have been spending more than $US 1.5 billion and more than 40, 000 trained fighters.

Remarkably, an international coalition directed by the U.S. intervened in 2014 against ISIS both in Iraq and Syria, where it conducted a series of airstrikes besides supplying weapons, advisors, and adequate training to the anti-ISIS groups and governments including “Syrian Democratic Forces and the Iraqi Security Forces.”  Notably, this reinforcement reinvigorated the two forces and managed to carry out a massive blow to ISIS, killing a significant number of the ISIL forces while damaging their military infrastructure and the group financiers. Later, ISIL lost several other fighters following a mild Russian intervention in Syria. This war with the Russian group further degraded the Islamic State’s finances. Significantly, ISIL lost command over Mosul, the group’s largest city after the Iraqi forces raided the group within the Mosul after the Syrian Democratic Forces captured Raqqa’s political capital, another critical zone to the ISIS in July 2017.

By losing these battles to Syria, Iraq, and the Russian, the Islamic State began to lose its expanded territories in different regions. By November 2017, ISIS had a relatively smaller population under its control. According to the report by the U.S. military in December 2017, ISIS remained with only 2% of its previously controlled territories. Meanwhile, Haider al Abadi, the Iraqi prime minister, claimed that Iraqi had managed to take control over the most significant region within the Iraqi borders by forcing the remaining ISIS forces out of the Iraqi borders. On March 23, 2019, the Islamic State lost one of the most critical regions across the Middle East during the Deir Ez-Zor campaigns.

Attacks involving the Islamic State

The Islamic State influenced the United Nations towards its acknowledgment as a global terrorist group, mainly because of the group’s involvement in terrorist attacks. For instance, in 2013, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Akashat ambush of the Syrian army convoy (Whiteside, 2016). Notably, the group conducted a well-organized attack against the unarmed Syrian forces defended by the Iraqi military.

In the same year 2013, the Islamic State confronted with al-Nusra Front, another jihadist group allied to al Qaeda over Markada town in-Hasaka Governorate at the time of the Syrian Civil war. This battle is famously known as the Battle of Markada. The Islamic State determined to capture Markada mainly because of the town’s strategic position for the supply of the group’s weapons from Iraq between Deir-Ez-Zor and Al-Hasakah as well as the hill that can be used to watch over the entire region.

In 2014, ISIS conducted a series of attacks against the Syrian Arab Army at the time of the Syrian civil war. The shootings ended with the bombing of Al-Taqba airbase for the Syrian forces in Raqqa province (Khan, 2014). By taking full control over the airbase, ISIL claimed victory in the fight. During the spring of 2015, ISIS conducted another battle known as the battle of Sirte within Sirte in Libya. The campaign involved ISIS and Libya Shield Force. Since February 2015, ISIS camped in Libya before the fall of Nofaliya. ISIS overcame Nofaliya just before the Libyan government sent reinforcement to recall Sirte. At least a dozen Tripoli soldiers were killed by the Islamic State’s troops. This battle is often called the fight of Nafoliya.

Despite all these victories of ISIL, ISIS has recorded a significant downfall following a series of defeats in the battle. In the past two years, the Islamic State has lost nearly all the actions. In 2019, the United States conducted a military operation dabbed as “Operation Kayla Mueller,” where Washington managed to kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed Caliph and the ISIS leader at the time. This operation occurred in the suburbs of Barisha, Syria. The U.S. Central Command commander, General Kenneth McKenzie, who directed this operation, claimed that the process was very intense and influenced Baghdadi to kill himself and two children using a detonating belt. This battle of Barisha is one of the recent fighting involving the Islamic State.

Impacts of the Islamic state to the society

This research establishes that the group has escalated insecurity in various regions, especially in Syria and Iraq. Usually, the lack of security decreases development projects in society. As such, the group has become a stumbling block to the region’s development agendas. It is also noteworthy that the group’s operations have led to the enormous killings of innocent people in various parts of middle-east and parts of Africa (Hashim, 2014). Because the groups lean on religious grounds, it has created an unwarranted image against Islamic faith, especially the Sunni Muslims. Notably, most of the Muslims have continued to condemn the group and its activities.

Nonetheless, the group has brought about changes in various governments while making unnecessary shifts in the governments. As such, the group has created redundant positions of the government, leading the societies somewhat more unfortunate than they could have been in the absence of the group. Besides, the existence of the group has led to the changes in lifestyle among the members of society.

Conclusion

As demonstrated by the above discussion, ISIS is among the most noxious terrorist groups across the world ISIS has been involved in a series of battles and wars against different governments, especially Syria and Iraq. However, the United States has been at the forefront to silence the group’s mission. This research establishes that the primary goals of the group are war against Shia Islam. The group has, however, affected many other people across denominations.

References

Bouzis, K. (2015). Countering the Islamic State: U.S. counterterrorism measures. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(10), 885-897.

Ford, T. (2016). How Daesh uses language in the domain of religion. Military Review, 96(2), 16.

Hashim, A. S. (2014). The Islamic State: From al‐Qaeda Affiliate to Caliphate. Middle East Policy, 21(4), 69-83.

Khan, Z. (2014). Words matter in ‘ISIS’war, so uses ‘Daesh.’ Boston Globe, 9.

Tinnes, J. (2016). Counting lives lost–Monitoring camera-recorded extrajudicial executions by the “Islamic State.” Perspectives on Terrorism, 10(1), 78-82.

Whiteside, C. (2016). The Islamic state and the return of revolutionary warfare. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 27(5), 743-776.