ISIS Origins Not this ISIS Two Crucial Questions

ISIS Origins

Not this ISIS

Two Crucial Questions • What, if anything does the “state” in Islamic State mean? – It looks more like a conquest or “mafia” state than any other kind • What role does terror do for the Islamic State? – It generated fear among poorly trained military opposition – It accelerated ethno/religious cleansing/rearrangement

Confluence of Two Trajectories • Islamic armed struggle • Collapse of the state • They came together between the two rivers: – Mesopotamia

The Invasion of Iraq • Iraq was an issue for President Bush and many of his advisers • The US Army rapidly defeated the Iraqi army • Paul Bremer dissolved the Ba’th party, the Iraqi security agencies, and the entire armed forces • In effect, the US dissolved the Iraqi state

Civil War in Iraq • US occupation turned power over to the Shi’i majority • The formerly dominant Sunnis were excluded • Sunni Islamist militias grew • So did Shi’i militias – Jaish al-Mahi – Badr Brigade

2006 bombing of Al-Askari mosque Shi’I shrine presumed burial place of 10 th and 11 th imams Destroyed by Al-Qaida as part of their war on Shi’i

Tens of thousands died One day in Baghdad in 2006 • Victims lined up on ground outside a hospital morgue unable to deal with them • People were killed by bombs, car bombs, gunfire, and electric drills • Ethno-sectarian war and cleansing

Iraq in general

Ethno-religious re-arrangements

A closer look at Baghdad

Mosul

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi • From the Jordanian town of Zarqa (hence his name) • Reportedly petty criminal and pimp • Prison enforcer and armed militant • Arrived too late to fight Soviets in Afghanistan • Joined al-Qa’ida • Returned to Afghanistan in 2001

Spectacular acts of violence Nicholas Berg, seated • Zarqawi beheaded Nick Berg in 2004 • Directed murder of Ayatollah Baqr al-Hakim in 2003 • Paid for murder of USAID official in Jordan, directed explosions at mosques and wedding party in Jordan

What kind of jihad was Zarqawi’s? • Its anti-American focus employed a “Madinan” view of Islam • Diverged in its attacks on Shi’i Muslims • Widened the concept of “takfir” to make mass murder permissible • Was it a form of tribal warfare? • Was it simply gang warfare writ large? • Or was it incipient state-building like the Klan?

Zarqawi, Zawahiri and Bin Ladin • Bin Ladin was a charismatic figure familiar with Saudi interpretations of Islam • Zawahiri was an upper middle class intellectual familiar with Islamic law and modern political discourse • Zarqawi was a militant politicized in prison more familiar with violence than Islamic law or political theory

Zarqawi was no communist but he did grasp Mao’s truth Abu Musab Zarqawi Mao Tse-Tung

Relative decrease in violence • By 2008 violence had peaked in Iraq • US policy makers argued it was the “surge” and their bargain with Sunni tribesmen to turn against Al-Qa’ida • Other analysts argue it was the result of a civil war ending as ethnic cleansing re-arranged the political map into three increasingly homogenous cantons

The Next Step • Despite the civil war and war-induced destruction of the state Zarqawi’s vision was realized because of events in Syria not Iraq • Mass demonstrations weakened the state • Al-Qa’ida became less relevant and the Islamic State blossomed after 2011

Death June 2006 • Zarqawi was killed by in Iraq two 500 pound bombs dropped by the US Air Force • It then appeared as if Al. Qaida in Iraq had been destroyed but in fact it was to return as the Islamic State

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Proclaimed himself Caliph • A formal claim of statehood • A conscious reference to a period of actual Islamic “stateness” • Context: the collapse of the re-integration of Iraqi Sunnis after Baghdadi’s death • Expansion in the cracks of the Syrian civil war/uprising