ISIS, expanded as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is not any more ISIS, as it has grown bigger in its size and claims to be the authority of the Muslims worldwide, under its caliphate led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
As a bigger entity, it calls itself Islamic State, controlling over a 10 million people living under its regime spread across thousands of kilometres mainly in Iraq and Syria.
Many are trying to flee from the atrocities of the IS raising the number of refugees who cross borders, get killed while trying to passage through the oceans between borders, are blamed for the extremist attacks like the one that happened in Paris.
The group doesn’t promote Islam as a faith; it attacks and kills the minority communities of Islam like the Yazidis in Iraq, making it one of the biggest threat for human civilization on earth.
Thus, everything that IS does and its consequences ends up in a massacre, while their purpose remains to create a world order under Sharia law.
It seems their understanding of the Islamic faith is too shallow, even to its leader Baghdadi, who is a Ph.D. in Islamic culture and history from the Islamic University of Baghdad. He is also said to be a descendant of Prophet Mohamed that gives him the power to reign over the Muslims worldwide.
This eligibility over lineage marks the major ideological difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Baghdadi was released by the US-led allied forces after a short detention from February to December in 2014, as he was not posing any serious threat to the West and its interests.
IS could have earned as much as $100 million from the sale of Crude oil in 2014, estimates US Treasury.
IS also has a slight influence over smaller regions in Afghanistan, Libya, and Nigeria. As the angels of gods, its followers are busy cleaning Islamic faith to make it spotless by getting rid of those who deface it through unIslamic activities.
Origin of ISIS Started as Tawhid wa al-Jihad by a Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the extremist group went through a lot of changes during its evolution to become what it is today.
It was supportive of Bin Laden and became Al-Qaeda in Iraq and later formed Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) after the death of Zarqawi. Baghdadi, who was considered less malicious, became the head of ISI and carried out brutal attacks across Iraq. It’s presence became evident in Syria and hence ISIS, when it opposed and joined the rebellion against Assad’s government.
Baghdadi united his forces in Iraq and Syria and named them as ISIL (Islamic State in the Iraq and the Levant).
Al-Qaeda leaders think that the ideologies of Zarqawi who founded ISIS are too extreme.
ISIL continued its mindless attacks in Iraq against the Shia-led government and started gaining control over regions in Iraq. After gaining a strong hold in more than ten cities in Iraq, the group evolved into Islamic State now as a caliphate under Caliph Baghdadi.
Now, it wants Muslims across the world to join its statehood and become subjects of its government under Sharia law. Whoever tries to throttle its growth would become its enemy and hence the free world.
Who created ISIS?
Even though there is an accusation that the United States along with its allies created the IS, it cannot be the whole truth, as they are partially responsible for its creation. Zarqawi pledged his support to Bin Laden after the US invasion in Iraq.
But it is also the Saudi Arabia and other Middle East allies of the US that funded the minority Sunni community in the countries led by Shiites to oust their governments, to destabilize and retain dominance in the region.
When the governments retaliated, the US, and the NATO got into the cobweb of conflicts. Thus, the Shia-Sunni split in the Muslim community and the pursuit of political interests by certain powers in the Middle East should also be kept equally responsible for the creation of one of the most devastating forces in human history.
Shortly put, it is the greed for political and economic gains of the ruling elite that created the ISIS.
The vision of IS is to unite all the Muslims together and bring back god’s rule under Sharia law. There will be a challenge of deciding who is a Muslim and who is not, as the Sunnis do not consider Shiites and other minority communities as Muslims. But the Muslims over the world do not consider those who slaughter human beings as Muslims. Neither does Islam.
Image Source: Britannica
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