Maria F.

Rivera
POLS 2100
Professor Mary Barker
April 20, 2016
The Rise of ISIS
"A generation ago, the world was in the midst of a Cold War which seemed to many to pit
"good" against "evil;" the evil being the Soviet Union, a communist totalitarian state that denied
individual liberties, committed human rights violations, and was seen to be the major cause of
international instability. The demise of the Soviet Union led many to expect an era of peace and
the expansion of human rights. No one foresaw the rise of a new threat, ISIS, that would commit
even greater atrocities, including public beheadings; burning prisoners alive; ethnic cleansing
and genocide; sexual slavery; and terrorist acts in European capitals. Much less did they expect
that this group would be an armed band that did not represent a state nor emerge from within one
of the great powers. The following research paper is about the extremist group ISIS and will
explore its rise to power. We have seen ISIS grow from in a matter of no time. We have
witnesses their atrocious acts in several places of the world and we know they have no intent of
stopping their horrifying agenda. But who is ISIS and what does ISIS want are the key questions
to ask ourselves to understand more about this group.
There are several names that the group is referred to; ISIS which is for the Islamic State
of Iraq and Syria, IS for Islamic State which is the name the group uses to end their limitation
in territory, ISIL for the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant. They aim to create an Islamic State
called a caliphate in the world. To understand this we must have some background information
on what the caliphate is. When the Prophet Mohammed led the Islam faith he was both the

religious leader for his people as well as ruler for the regions of Islam. When he died, the quest to
find a successor began, and so did the competition to become the one that rules over all the
believers. This competition split the Muslim faith into two groups, the Shia who believe that
Prophet Mohammeds favorite son-in-law should be the successor and the Sunni which
believed those closest to Mohammed should be the ones ruling. ISIS is a Sunni Islamist group
and they believe that Shia Muslims are apostates and that they must die in order to keep Islam
pure.
The Ottoman Empire was the last caliphate, and with its collapse after WWI the last
caliphate ended. Several Muslim groups wanted to re-establish the caliphate decades later,
including the Muslim Brotherhood created in Egypt in 1928. They sought to upend the world
order by ending what one scholar called the division of Muslim lands into measly pieces which
call themselves nations. Karl Vick (with Times Magazine) But in June 29, 2014 ISIS declared
themselves as the caliphate. It was announced on the first day of the Ramadam, Islams holy
month and also declared they had renamed themselves as just the Islam State, no longer ISIS.
ISIS was a response to the invasion of the United States in Iraq in 2003 after the 9/11
attacks. They were formerly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq very similar to Osama bin Ladens AlQaeda. In 2006 the Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub Al-Masri, announded the creation of ISI,
the Islamic State of Iraq and named Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as their leader. But the rise of ISIS
did not start until 2011 when the U.S troops left Iraq and the war in Iraq came to an end. This is
due to the fact that Iraq was not prepared to deal with ISIS and that most of all the weapons they
now had were taken by ISIS. However, the Syrian Civil War also played a key role since ISIS did
not become what it is now until it moved into Syria, which is where they were able to operate
and recruit Sunnis that wanted to fight the Shia government. In Syria is where they found the

platform for an invasion of Iraq.

Syrias Civil War was important for the terrorist group, and it is crucial to know the
history of it. Syria was during the war was split into four parts; Kurds, Assad, ISIS, and Rebels
and every side had their foreign backups. The War started March 2011 in the peaceful Arab
Spring demonstrations when the first shots were fired by Bashar al-Assad which is the Syrian
dictator. In July the protesters shot back with the help of some of Assads army and with that the
civil war started. Assad obviously in an attempt to fight back used jihadist prisoners in order to
help with the rebellion, he wanted them to their extremist means against the rebels which were
the protestors and people that joined them. Kurds then joined the war but to secede from Assads
rule. Iran helped out Assad because it was its ally and sent a Lebanese Shia group by the name of
Hezbollah to invade and be on Assads side. At this point the Middle East was divided into
Sunnis and Shias, the Shias were supporting Assad and Sunnis supporting the rebels. The war
was horrible and catastrophic as any other war, Assad used chemical weapons against the people
of Ghouta which got U.S and Russia involved. U.S then wanted to respond to the attacks of
chemical weapons used by Assad and Russia asked Syria to surrender control of the chemical
weapons because they supported Assad. US did not go through with the intervention but then
sent arms to support the rebels. In 2014 ISIS joined the Syrian war, not fighting Assad but
fighting the other rebels and Kurds. The rebels and the Kurds also fight ISIS. Turkey also got
involved by fighting Kurdish groups in Iraq and Turkey but not ISIS. Russia also gets involved
and claims they will bomb ISIS but ends up only bombing Assads enemies.
As of now United States has allies against ISIS which include Australia, Belgium,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Jordan, Denmark, Canada, France, the United Kingdom,
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. They have targeted ISIS with, 8,216 airstrikes 5,383 in

Iraq and 2,833 in Syria, through November 16. Ashley Frantz (CNN) Although the efforts are
there, they have not been able to stop ISIS, and it seems like the only way to do it is by going in
direct war against them.
Besides the Syrian war there are also several factors to the strength of ISIS and how they
have gained supporters. One major one was the conflict between the Shia and Sunni Muslims
and how ISIS manipulated these feelings to fulfill their own interests. Another thing that
strengthen the power of ISIS is that they make great use of social media to promote their
ideology, spread extremism, and recruit. They have also used it as means to manipulate and
brainwash the youth in order for them to join them and young people all over the world are
leaving their countries to join them. Through social media they spread the videos and pictures of
the horrific acts they do, and how people are tortured and then killed. Most recently we have
seen them use social media to brag and claim credit for terrorist acts they commit around the
world to spread fear among people.
The death toll in Iraq due to ISIS is of 18, 800 people in only the last 2 years. The United
Nations documents that they also have about 3,500 people captive and most women and children
are used as sex slaves, most are part of the Yazidi religious community. Some of the terrorist acts
outside Syria and Iraq committed by ISIS or inspired by them include the following: Charlie
Hebdo in Paris where 12 people died. The reason for this attack was due to the published works
of the satirical magazine towards the Mohammed. The Yemen Mosque bombing, with 130
deaths, with five suicide bombers against Shias. The Tunisia Beach Resort shooting with 38
deaths and 39 wounded. The Russian plane crash in Egypt with a dead toll of 224 people. Once
again attacks in Paris, where gunmen and suicide bombers targeted a concert, a major stadium,
restaurants and bars and left 130 people dead and hundreds injured and about 100 hundred

people in critical conditions. Also the San Bernardino, California shooting which was inspired by
the ISIS group because there was no evidence to link that ISIS directed this attack, it left 14
people dead and both shooters, a married couple were killed. And the most recent attack the
Brussels bombing which left 30 people dead and 200 wounded.
In conclusion we see that ISIS wont stop at any point, they have gained the power that
they needed to start their caliphate and they will only try and expand because this is not their
final goal. As mentioned earlier, they are a threat not only to the Middle East, or the Muslim
community but those who disagree with them as we have seen in previous attacks towards other
European countries. This group is far more than just a extremist religious group, they are
terrorizing millions, killing thousands, destroying the much needed peace in the Middle East and
their religious beliefs are not an excuse for their acts. It is definitely needed for the Middle East
to combat ISIS before it grows even stronger into the Empire they want to be, and it cannot be
done by foreigners because it would not solve anything but rather complicate things more like
we saw in Iraq.

Works Cited
Karl Vick. What is the Caliphate? TIME Magazine. July 1, 2014.
http://time.com/2942239/what-is-the-caliphate/
Matt Bradley. ISIS Declares New Islamist Caliphate. The Wall Street Journal. June 29, 2014.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/isis-declares-new-islamist-caliphate-1404065263
Twfik Cassis. A brief History of ISIS. The Week. November 25, 2015
http://theweek.com/articles/589924/brief-history-isis
CNN Library. ISIS Fast Facts. CNN. March 27, 2016.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/world/isis-fast-facts/
Max Fisher. Questions about ISIS. VOX. November 23, 2015
http://www.vox.com/2015/11/23/9779188/isis-syria-iraq-9-questions
Martin Smith. The Rise of ISIS. Frontline.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/rise-of-isis/
Nick Thompson. Everything you need to know about ISIS. February 10, 2015.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/14/world/isis-everything-you-need-to-know/
Ashley Frantz. ISIS: Who is doing what? November 27, 2015
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/20/world/war-on-isis-whos-doing-what/
Karen Yourish. Where ISIS Has Directed And Inspired Attacks Around The World. New York
Times. March 22, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/17/world/middleeast/map-isis-attacksaround-the-world.html?_r=0
Alastair Jamieson. ISIS Death Toll. NBC News. January 19, 2016.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-death-toll-18-800-killed-iraq-2-yearsu-n499426
Don Melvin. Quick Succession of Terrorist Attacks has Officials Worried. CNN. June 30, 2015
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/29/africa/tunisia-terror-attack/
BBC News. Paris Attacks: What happened on the night. BBC News. December 9, 2015.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34818994
Greg Aisch, Ford Fessenden. What Investigators Know About the San Bernardino Shooting. The
New York Times. December 10, 2015.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34818994