"The
Islamic State,
[1] previously
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (or
ISIL), formerly known as the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or
ISIS), and, before that the
Islamic State in Iraq (they really like changing their name
[2] is a
Jihadist terrorist group operating in
Iraq and
Syria claiming to be a
Caliphate. Founded by
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it grew out of
al-Qaeda in Iraq
[3] (formerly the "Group for
Monotheism and Jihad") after its split and rebuke by al-Qaeda commanders in April 2013
[4]
for excess brutality. The group continues to hold its designation as a
foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of State.
[5] Its current leader,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
[6] said to be a former member of the
Fedayeen Saddam,[wp] was broken out of
Abu Ghraib prison in July 2013 by ISIL along with several hundred experienced jihadists.
[7] On June 30, 2014 they declared a
Sunni caliphate with Baghdadi as the
“Commander of the Faithful,” a term essentially declaring him
leader of all Muslims.
They truly rose as a powerful clique during the ongoing Syrian
civil war.
They carved out an enormous swathe of territory between Syria and Iraq,
including weapons abandoned by fleeing soldiers, banks, money -
everything that makes them, effectively, Al Qaeda on steroids. It is
responsible for
ethnic cleansing of all
sects
they disagree with, as well as consistent civilian causalities in their
quest for power. They give all civilians the option of forced
conversion to their particular interpretation of
Islam,
to be extorted, or death. Sometimes they execute converts as a way to
keep them pure. The brutality is such that an entire group of people
absolutely no one heard of before August of 2014 (well,
kinda), the
Yazidis, are at risk of
genocide.
This page will be updated as the situation unfolds. In the
meantime, rest assured that they are bad news. Unlike most terrorist
organizations, ISIS has been documented to be well-funded and it's
fanatical soldiers are said to be surprisingly competent fighters who
are "very professional, well trained, motivated and equipped. They
operate like a state with a military."
[8] So bad, in fact, that the
US,
Russia,
Syria,
Iran, the Kurdish
nationalists of Iraq and Syria, and the Kurdish
Communists of the PKK are
all cooperating against them. Indeed, their own members have left, disaffected by the degree of
extremism;
even al-Nusra Front, which uses child soldiers, split with them and
began fighting them (they still want to kill you too, though). When
they do eventually fall apart, the cause will be clear." -ISIS/Islamic State via Rational Wiki
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/ISIS
