The ISIS Chronicles: A History
07/17/14
Robert G. Rabil
Terrorism, ISIS, Counterinsurgency, History, Middle East, Iraq
"If the Islamic State’s history is any indication, then one should be concerned about it deepening political polarization and sectarianism in both Lebanon and Jordan..."
On June 10, 2014, Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq
and the capital of Ninawa province, fell to the Salafi-Jihadi
organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The fall of
Mosul and the subsequent blitz with which ISIS took over other Sunni
majority cities shocked Washington and Baghdad. However, the leaderships
of the two countries have entertained different visions as to how to
deal with this surging threat to regional and international stability.
This has only added another layer of misconception about ISIS and its
future military and religiopolitical program in the Middle East. ISIS
has achieved what Al Qaeda failed to accomplish. A recent statement by
ISIS in which it rebranded itself as the “Islamic State,” declaring the
establishment of an Islamic Caliphate
in Iraq and Syria, led by its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as Caliph
Ibrahim, shows both the astuteness of its military command and ingenuity
of its ideologues. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Islamic State
has already replaced Al Qaeda as the paradigm organization of
Salafi-Jihadists and stands, if not defeated in its formative stage, not
only to change the map of political geography of the Middle East, but
also the scope and breadth of Salafi-jihadi threat to the West and
Middle East.
The
ideological roots of the ISIS can be traced to the Jama’at al-Tawhid
wal-Jihad, which was established in Iraq in 2004 by the Salafi-jihadi
Jordanian Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi soon pledged his allegiance
to Al Qaeda’s founder Osama bin Laden, and changed the name of his
organization to Tanzim Al Qaeda fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Al Qaeda
Organization in the Country of the Two Rivers). This organization became
commonly known as Al Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi was killed by American
troops in 2006 in Iraq. His successors Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and Abu Omr
al-Baghdadi were both killed in 2010, whereupon the leadership of Al
Qaeda in Iraq passed to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Read full articlehttp://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-isis-chronicles-history-10895
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