Islamic State
The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and the Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist militant organisation and an unrecognised quasi-state. IS occupied significant territory in Iraq and Syria in 2013, but lost most of it between 2017 and 2019. In 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate, and claimed religious and political authority over all Muslims worldwide. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many countries around the world, including Muslim countries.
By the end of 2015, its self-declared caliphate ruled an area with a population of about 12 million, where they enforced their extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters. After a grinding conflict with American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, IS lost control of its Middle Eastern territories by 2019, subsequently reverting to insurgency from remote hideouts while continuing its propaganda efforts. These efforts have garnered a significant following in northern and Sahelian Africa, where IS still controls a significant territory. Originating in the Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, the organisation affiliated itself with al-Qaeda in Iraq and fought alongside them during the 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency. The group later changed its name to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant for about a year, before declaring itself to be a worldwide caliphate, called simply the Islamic State.
During its rule in Syria and Iraq, the group became notorious for its brutality. It launched genocides against Yazidis and Iraqi Turkmen; engaged in persecution of Christians, Shia Muslims, and Mandaeans; publicised videos of beheadings of soldiers, journalists, and aid workers; and destroyed cultural sites. The group has perpetrated terrorist massacres in territories outside of its control, such as the November 2015 Paris attacks, the 2024 Kerman bombings in Iran, the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack in Russia, the Hanukkah massacre of Jews on Bondi beach in Australia and the knifing of Jews outside a British synagogue on Yom Kippur.Lone wolf attacks inspired by the group have also taken place.
After 2015, the Iraqi Armed Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces pushed back IS and degraded its financial and military infrastructure, assisted by advisors, weapons, training, supplies, and airstrikes by the American-led coalition, and later by Russian airstrikes, bombings, cruise missile attacks, and scorched-earth tactics across Syria, which focused mostly on razing Syrian opposition strongholds rather than IS bases. By March 2019, IS lost the last of its territories in West Asia, although its affiliates maintain a significant territorial presence in Africa as of 2025.
Name
The Islamic State, abbreviated IS, is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, and also as . In April 2013, having expanded into Syria, the group adopted the name . As al-Shām is a region often compared with the Levant or the region of Syria, the group's name has been variously translated as "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham", "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria", or "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant". In 2014, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah dubbed ISIS as "QSIS" for "al-Qaeda Separatists in Iraq and Syria", arguing that the group does not represent the vast majority of Muslims.While the use of either one or the other acronym has been the subject of debate, the distinction between the two and its relevance has been considered less important. Of greater relevance is the name Daesh, which is an acronym of ISIL's Arabic name, or Daesh. This name is widely used among the Muslim world, as well as ISIL's Arabic-speaking detractors, for example when referring to the group whilst speaking amongst themselves, although—and to a certain extent because—it is considered derogatory, as it resembles the Arabic words Daes and Dāhis. Within areas under its control, ISIL considers use of the name Daesh punishable by flogging.
In late June 2014, the group renamed itself , declaring itself a worldwide caliphate. The name "Islamic State" and the group's claim to be a caliphate have been widely rejected, with the UN, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups refusing to use the new name. The group's declaration of a new caliphate in June 2014 and its adoption of the name "Islamic State" have been criticised and ridiculed by Muslim scholars and rival Islamists both inside and outside the territory it controls.
In a speech in September 2014, United States president Barack Obama said that ISIL was neither Islamic nor a state, while many object to using the name Islamic State owing to the far-reaching religious and political claims to authority which that name implies. The United Nations Security Council, the United States, Canada, Turkey, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other countries generally call the group ISIL, while much of the Arab world uses the Arabic acronym Dāʻish or Daesh. France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: "This is a terrorist group and not a state. I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. The Arabs call it 'Daesh' and I will be calling them the 'Daesh cutthroats'." Retired general John Allen, the U.S. envoy appointed to co-ordinate the coalition; U.S. Army Lieutenant General James Terry, head of operations against the group; and Secretary of State John Kerry had all shifted towards use of the term Daesh by December 2014, which nonetheless remained a pejorative in 2021.
Purpose and strategy
Ideology
The ideology of the Islamic State has been described as being a hybrid of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Islamic fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism, as well as other doctrines.According to Robert Manne, there is a "general consensus" that the ideology of the Islamic State is "primarily based upon the writings of the radical Egyptian theoretician Sayyid Qutb". The Muslim Brotherhood began the trend of political Islamism in the 20th century, seeking gradual establishment of a new Caliphate, a comprehensive Islamic society ruled by sharia law. Qutb's doctrines of jahiliyya, hakimiyya, and takfir of entire societies formed a radicalised vision of the Muslim Brotherhood's political Islam project. Qutbism became the precursor to all jihadist thought, from Abdullah Azzam to Zawahiri and to Daesh. Alongside Sayyid Qutb, the most invoked ideological figures of IS include Ibn Taymiyya, Abdullah Azzam, and Abu Bakr Naji.
Although IS claims to adhere to the Salafi theology of Ibn Taymiyyah, it rejects traditional Salafi interpretations as well as the four Sunni schools of law, and anathematises the majority of Salafis as heretics. IS ideologues rarely uphold adherence to Islamic scholarship and law manuals for reference, mostly preferring to derive rulings based on self-interpretation of the Qur'an and Muslim traditions.
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the first Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq, was radicalised as a Muslim Brotherhood member during his youth. Motaz Al-Khateeb states that religious texts and Islamic jurisprudence "alone cannot explain the emergence" of Daesh since the Muslim Brotherhood and Daesh "draw on the same Islamic jurisprudence" but "are diametrically opposite" in strategy and behaviour. Through the official statement of beliefs originally released by al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, ISIL defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites". ISIL's ideology represents radical Jihadi-Salafi Islam, a strict, puritanical form of Sunni Islam. Muslim organisations like Islamic Networks Group in America have argued against this interpretation of Islam. ISIL promotes religious violence, and regards Muslims who do not agree with its interpretations as infidels or apostates.
According to Hayder al Khoei, IS's philosophy is represented by the symbolism in the Black Standard variant of the legendary battle flag of Muhammad that it has adopted: the flag shows the Seal of Muhammad within a white circle, with the phrase above it, "There is no god but Allah". This symbolism is said to symbolise IS's belief that it represents the restoration of the caliphate of early Islam, with all the political, religious, and eschatological ramifications that this would imply.
Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir, an Egyptian Jihadist theoretician and ideologue is considered as the key inspiration for early figures of IS. Al-Muhajir's legal manual on violence, Fiqh ad-Dima, was adopted by IS as its standard reference for justifying its extraordinary acts of violence. The book has been described by counter-terrorism scholar Orwa Ajjoub as rationalising and justifying "suicide operations, the mutilation of corpses, beheading, and the killing of children and non-combatants". His theological and legal justifications influenced IS, al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram, as well as several other jihadi terrorist groups. Media outlets have compared his reference manual to Abu Bakr Naji's Management of Savagery, widely read among IS's commanders and fighters.
IS adheres to global jihadist principles and follows the hard-line ideology of al-Qaeda and many other modern-day jihadist groups.
According to The Economist, Saudi practices followed by the group include the establishment of religious police to root out "vice" and enforce attendance at Salah prayers, the widespread use of capital punishment, and the destruction or re-purposing of any non-Sunni religious buildings. Bernard Haykel has described IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's creed as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism". Senior Saudi religious leaders have issued statements condemning IS, and attempting to distance the group from official Saudi religious beliefs. What connection, if any, there is between Salafi-Jihadism of IS and Wahhabism and Salafism proper is disputed. IS borrowed two elements of Qutbism and 20th century Islamism into its version of Wahhabi worldview. While Wahhabism shuns violent rebellion against earthly rulers, IS embraces political call to revolutions. While historically Wahhabis were not champion activists of a Caliphate, IS borrowed the idea of restoration of a global Caliphate.
Although the religious character of IS is mostly Wahhabi, it departs from the Wahhabi tradition in four critical aspects: dynastic alliance, call to establish a global caliphate, sheer violence, and apocalyptism. IS did not follow the pattern of the first three Saudi states in allying the religious mission of the Najdi ulema with the Al Saud family, rather they consider them apostates. The call for a global caliphate is another departure from Wahhabism. The caliphate, understood in Islamic law as the ideal Islamic polity uniting all Muslim territories, does not figure much in traditional Najdi writings. Ironically, Wahhabism emerged as an anti-caliphate movement.
Although violence was not absent in the First Saudi State, Islamic State's displays of beheading, immolation, and other forms of violence aimed at inspiring fear are not in imitation of early Saudi practices. They were introduced by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, former leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who took inspiration from the Egyptian Jihadi scholar, Abu Abdallah Al Muhajir. It is the latter's legal manual on violence, popularly known as Fiqh ad-Dima, that is the Islamic State's standard reference for justifying its acts of violence. The Islamic State's apocalyptic dimension also lacks a mainstream Wahhabi precedent.
IS aims to return to the early days of Islam, rejecting all innovations in the religion, which it believes corrupts its original spirit. It condemns later caliphates and the Ottoman Empire for deviating from what it calls pure Islam and seeks to revive the original Qutbist project of the restoration of a global caliphate that is governed by a strict Salafi-Jihadi doctrine. Following Salafi-Jihadi doctrines, IS condemns the followers of secular law as disbelievers, putting the current Saudi Arabian government in that category.
IS believes that only a legitimate authority can undertake the leadership of jihad and that the first priority over other areas of combat, such as fighting non-Muslim countries, is the purification of Islamic society. For example, IS regards the Palestinian Sunni group Hamas as apostates who have no legitimate authority to lead jihad and see fighting Hamas as the first step towards confrontation by IS with Israel.
Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye said: