To understand how this terrible group came out and how it has grown so powerful over the last years, you need to understand the story behind its rise, which leads you to decades before ISIS even existed.
In 1979 the sovietunion invaded Afghanistan to defend a dectator in its conflict with anti-communist muslim guerrillas, which we by the way also read about in the book “Thousand Splendid suns”. Young men from middle-east came to join the war, also referred to as Mujahideen (this is also mentioned in the book). Many viewed the situation as a religious struggle, and from there, some developed extremist views.
Among them was a well educated young Saudi-Arabian named Osama Bin Laden. Also in
On the left: Abu Mudab Al-Zarqwavi, to the right: Osama Bin Laden
Afghanistan was a semi-literate former street thug from Jordan who calls himself by “Abu Musab Al-Zarqwavi”. These to young men did not get along at all. Infact, they were considered as enemies. They created their groups by the names we know today as Al-Qaida and ISIS. On september 11, 2001, Al-Qaida attacks America. As a result, the U.S invades Afghanistan, Bin Laden traveles to Pakistan, and Zarqwavi, on the other hand, flees to Iraq. 2 years later, The U.S does something that transforms the middle-east and sets the stage for ISIS.
Saddam Hussains secular, mostly sunni dictatorship disbans Iraqy army. Thousands of sunni iraqy soldiers were now angry and unemployed, and therefore joined the surgency. Jihadist groups were also sunni. See, this is repeated the soviet-afghan war, and again they went in to fight. Zarqwavi was among them. His group eventually became Iraqs most ruthless. He especially attacks Shia, which creates a war between Sunni and Shia. However, in 2004, Zarqwavi becomes a jihadist superstar. Al-Qaida, on the other hand, were isolated and weakened, which attens to boost his image by forming a line known as “Al-Qaida in Iraq”.
Never the less, in 2006, Iraq sunnis rise up against Zarqwavi and the U.S killes him with air strike.
Over the next years Al-Qaida in Iraq is largey defeated, and finally in 2011, the U.S leaves Iraq.
In 2011 the Arab Spring spreads across the middle-east. In Syria, dictator Assad, cracks down violantly on protestors, which leads to people fighting back. This leads to a civil war. Assad fears that the world will go against him, therefor he releases jihadists in large numbers in Syrian prisons, making it harder for people to fight back.
Back in Iraq, what little remains of Zarqwavis so called group “Al-Qaida in Iraq”, is still allied with Al-qaida, but is now known as The Islamic State of Iraq. The group is leaded by a scholar named Abubakr-al baghdadi. In 2012, Baghdadi sends attackers to Syria to start a new Al-Qaida branch to fight along side the rebels. Baghdadi attacks a series of prisons in Iraq and frees former jihadists and recruit new ones, which leads to ISIS growing stronger and becoming more powerful.
In april 2013, Baghdadi announces he is taking control over all Al-Qaida allied forces in Syria and Iraq. His group expands into Syria, and the group becomes “The Islamic State in Syria” , also shortened to ISIS.
Al-Qaida ,on the other hand, rejects Baghdadi’s announcement, and in 2014, the two jihadist groups were at war.
ISIS grows stronger and stronger, which is not really hard to understand because the dictator in Syria, Assad, is tolerating its rise. The reason behind his tolerance is because it devides enemies within Syria, and also because the former powers are too busy focusing on ISIS now to worry about Assad.
By June 2014, ISIS has build an army in Syria and it launches a military invasion in Iraq. The Iraqy army, which I mentioned about earlier, was weakened by corruption, fought with little faith. Many sunnis in Iraq were tired of Shia dominating the country. Therefore they tolerated ISIS arriavle. Within days, ISIS controlled third of Iraq and a large part of Syria.
Thousands of muslims, mostly from middle-east and Europe, went down to join the group. Some joined for religious reasons, while some were just disillusioned and angry and feel that ISIS gives them answers and a purpose.
Sources:
Encyclopædia Britannica– Written by the editors of Enclopædia Britannica- last updated: 6-3-2015
Vanity fair News– Written by Michael Kinsley- may 2015
Countur Punch– written by Bouthaina Shaaban- January 29, 2016
VERSO– Written by Patrick Cockburn
TIME– Aryn Baker- Feb.26.2015
The Atlantic– Written by Dominiv Tierney -Sept.28.2015
Time– Written by Jared Malsin- Last updated: Nov.24.2015
The National Interest– By Ari Heistein – January 7, 2016
FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE– By Daniel Greenfield- Published Nov,4,2015.
Mariam Arfan 