This Islamist army has seized much of Iraq and Syria.
What does it want and what can be done about it?
JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC / April 20, 2015
What Is ISIS?
ISIS is short for the Islamic State
of Iraq and Syria. The groups radical aim is to set up a massive state ruled by strict Islamic law. ISIS is a product of years of chaos in the Middle East. Its forerunner was an army called Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Qaeda in Iraq fought the U.S. after American forces toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraqs dictator, in 2003. In time, that group evolved into ISIS, led by an ambitious jihadi named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Then in 2011, neighboring Syria exploded into civil war. At first,
AP Images (ISIS); Polaris Images (Museum)
t swept into the news last year, spreading
horrors like an invading horde from the Dark Ages. In just weeks, the insurgent Islamist army called ISIS* conquered a huge part of Syria and Iraq. It threatened Iraqs capital, Baghdad. ISIS imposed its harsh rule in towns under its control. It held public executions. It even stoned people accused of violating Islamic law. It massacred captured soldiers by the hundreds. The world was shocked by a series of ISIS-made videos of Western captives being beheaded. Recently, ISIS recorded its fighters destroying centuries-old artifacts of Mesopotamian civilization. Since last August, bombing raids by a U.S.-led group of allied countries and attacks by armies from Iraq and Iran have managed to halt its progress. But experts agree that defeating ISIS will not be easy. Here are five important things to know about what one journalist calls the most powerful and effective [extremist] group in the world.
ISIS fighters march
through Raqqa, Syria, destroy ancient artifacts (below, left), and blow up Shia mosques (above, right).
of three London teens passing through airport security on their way to join ISIS in Syria.
ISIS was just one of the groups
fighting Syrias president. But, says Karl Kaltenthaler of the University of Akron in Ohio, it developed into a powerful army. As ISIS won victory after victory and took more and more territory, it attracted fighters from all over the world, Kaltenthaler says. Officers and soldiers from Husseins army also gave ISIS years of invaluable battlefield experience. In December 2013, ISIS began its attack on western Iraq. As ISIS approached, whole towns cleared out. That created about 1 million refugees. ISIS terrorized places
under its control. ISIS fighters
forced Christians and other religious minorities to convert or be killed. They even sold some into slavery. ISIS seized oil refineries, raised taxes, and stole about $425million from Iraqs central bank.
What Does ISIS Want?
ISIS is dedicated to re-establishing a caliphate. That is an Islamic
state led by a caliph, or successor to Muhammad, Islams founder. The most powerful caliphate existed during the 9thcentury. It reached from modern-day Pakistan,
*Some authorities, including the U.S. government, call it ISILthe Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant. (Levant is a historical term for the lands along the eastern Mediterranean Sea.) The group now calls itself the Islamic State.
across the Middle East and North
Africa, and into Spain. Last June, ISIS formally declared itself the Islamic State, led by Baghdadi as caliph. All of the Muslim countries [are expected] to become part of this mega-state and pledge their loyalty to the new caliph, Kaltenthaler tells JS. The people of the Islamic State are Sunni Muslims. Experts say that their struggle is mainly a sectarian war against Shia Muslims. The bitter rivalry between Sunni and Shia goes back to the argument over continued on p. 10
April 20, 2015 / JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC
One of the few
photos of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS, whom the group has declared caliph of the worlds Muslims
showed up in Syria posing for an
online photo with an assault rifle. An estimated 20,000 foreigners from 80 countries have made similar journeys. About 4,000 of them came from the West. As many as How Strong 130 were from the U.S. Is ISIS? News stories show ISISs cruel ISIS now has an army of up to treatment of women, 35,000 fighters. It such as f orcing them has made billions of to marry fighters. dollars from donaWomen are also tions, taxes, and beaten for not wearselling oil. Foreign ing strict Muslim extremist armies like dress. Yet about Boko Haram in Nige10percent of ISIS ria have pledged recruits from the allegiance. This is West are young not just a [terrorist] women. Aqsa Mahgroup, says Taylor. mood, a popular, Its a worldwide Karl Kaltenthaler Harry Potter-loving movement. 20-year-old from However, ISIS is Scotland, shocked her family by starting to show some cracks. Air going to Syria. She convinced three strikes and ground-force attacks teen girls from London to join her. have reduced its territory by about Airport security cameras captured 25 percent, the U.S. Department of the girls leaving England (see p. 9). Defense says. The bombing has tar-
Why Does ISIS Attract
Young Westerners?
10
JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC / April 20, 2015
Lately, the news has been full
of stories of young Muslims from the U.S. and Europe joining ISIS. In New York, police arrested two young men suspected of traveling to Syria to become fighters. In Minnesota, a 20-year-old planning to become a lawyer left home, then
ISIS does a very
good job of creating slick messages that play on the emotions of young Muslims to get them to come and join their cause,
AP Images
who would succeed Muhammad
after the Prophets death in 632 a.d. The governments of Iraq, Syria, and Iran are ISISs foes. All three are dominated by Shia Muslims. ISIS also sees the U.S. and other Western countries as enemies of Islam, according to Robert Taylor of the University of Texas at Dallas. [To them,] the West is corrupt, Taylor says. Its a colonizer. [It has taken over] much of the Arab power in the Middle East. ISISs beheading videos are meant to upset the West, Taylor says. This is an act of defiance.
Some [young people] are
drawn to ISIS out of a belief that it is creating what God intended for Muslims, Kaltenthaler tells JS. Female recruits may also imagine they will find an ideal community of faithful Muslim women caring for jihadi men. This is especially the case if the women come from countries where they feel out of place as Muslims. The Islamic State offers a positive image and says: Youre welcome here. Come join us in the formation of an ideal state, one expert told The New York Times. Many recruits are bedroom radicals. They were quietly converted in their own homes through social media and a professional Internet campaign. ISIS does a very good job of creating slick messages that play on the emotions of young Muslims to get them to come and join their cause, says Kaltenthaler.
and Shia Islam and work together.
Both sects must also believe they IR have a stake in their countries. AQ (as of 3/13/15) I Mosul Sunnis and Shias in Iraq and Syria Raqqa MT. SINJAR Aleppo must look at ISIS as the common Erbil Kirkuk enemy rather than each other as IRAN CYPRUS Homs the bigger enemy, he says. Tikrit Taylor thinks that the West Mediterranean Sea will have to deal directly with the LEBANON Islamic State in the end. Were Falluja Baghdad Damascus just not going to be able to deal with this militarily, he says. JORDAN ISRAEL So far, U.S. President Barack Eup h r ate s Obama has refused to send combat troops. But the U.S.-led bombing U.S. SAUDI ARABIA campaign has played a major part EQUATOR 0 50 MI Area of map KUWAIT Persian in containing ISIS. Last month, the Gulf 100 KM 0 SOURCE: Institute for the Study of War U.S. also began contributing air power to the Iraqi army, to help its PERSIAN GULF weeks-old campaign to take back geted ISIS oil facilities. That makes Can ISIS the important city of Tikrit. it harder for the group to fund its Be Stopped? Make no mistake, this is a difoperations. ISIS wants to keep an Are the U.S. and its allies strong ficult mission, Obama has said. actual state together. But doing that enough to defeat ISIS? That is a But, he added, our coalition is on is proving more and more difficult. tough question. the offensive, [ISIS] is on the defenFor instance, its hard to provide For Kaltenthaler, part of the sive, and [ISIS] is going to lose. medicine and drinking water for so answer is in conTaylor is more cautious. He says many people. vincing people that Americans who see ISIS as a ISISs success in attracting in the Middle temporary problem to be solved fighters from many countries has East to put need to consider the attitude of brought its own problems. They aside the people in the Middle East. They cant talk to each other because 1,300-yearthink in hundreds of years instead they dont share a common old conflict of decades, he says. ISIS is language, Kaltenthaler says. between Sunni prepared to accept any defeats as Veteran fighters also resent the temporary setbacks and wait for privileges given to foreign recruits. history to go its way. Another source of ISISs strength This isnt going to has been support from Sunnis be a quickie, Taylor who resent their countries Shia says. Its going to be governments. But some of those tough.Bryan Brown people are now tired of the groups brutality. They resist being made to fight. People supported [ISIS] Your Turn because they were scared or What could convince they needed money, one Syrian a young person to join ISIS? What illusions opposition leader told a reporter. might he or she have? Now people want nothing to How could that life do with them, and if [ISIS] puts seem more fulfilling? pressure on them, they just flee.
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Jim McMahon/Mapman (Map); Kevin Lamarque/Reuters (Barack Obama)