Making sense of ISIS David Siddhartha Patel Crown

Making sense of ISIS David Siddhartha Patel Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University March 19, 2015

Outline • • • Origins of ISIS/ISIL/DAESH/IS ? !? Goals Intentions and philosophy Why has it been successful? Who is fighting ISIS and where?

2003 -2011 – Part of the Iraqi insurgency - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - - 1999 -2004: Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad Oct 2004: Pledges allegiance to OBL; becomes al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) Highly sectarian – targets Shi’ite mosques and civilians, Iraqi govt, U. S. Feb 2006: bombing of al-Askariyya shrine in Samaraa June 2006: Zarqawi killed Oct 2006: Declares Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) Largely defeated by the U. S. from June 2007 to 2010; reduced to sporadic bombing May 2010: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi takes over 2011 -present – Expansion into Syria fuels revival in Iraq - March 2011: Syrian civil war begins - Aug 2011: ISI sends cadres to Syria, who work with al-Nusra Front as al-Qaeda’s franchise. ISI becomes ISIS; renames itself in April 2013. - March 2013: ISIS and allies take Raqqa - By Feb 2014: ISI/ISIS falls out with al-Nusra and al-Qaeda. All ties severed. Fights al. Nusra and FSA. Takes Fallujah in Jan 2014. Prison breaks in Iraq swell its ranks. - Early June 2014: ISIS takes Mosul, Tikrit, oil refinery in Baiji, Mosul dam - Late June 2014: ISIS proclaims itself a worldwide caliphate, The Islamic State. - Aug 2014: Attacks on Yazidis in Sinjar - Aug 2014: Obama authorizes airstrikes against ISIS

ISIS/ISIL/IS/Da‘ish? !? ﺍﻟﺪﻭﻟﺔ ﺍﻹﺳﻼﻣﻴﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺍﻕ ﻭﺍﻟﺸﺎﻡ ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fīl-ʿIrāq wash-Shām ISIS – The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIL – The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant

ISIS/ISIL/IS/Da‘ish? !? ﺍﻟﺪﻭﻟﺔ ﺍﻹﺳﻼﻣﻴﺔ ﻓﻲ ﺍﻟﻌﺮﺍﻕ ﻭﺍﻟﺸﺎﻡ ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fīl-ʿIrāq wash-Shām The Islamic State The so-called Islamic State (BBC’s preferred term)

Area controlled by ISIS (1 November 2014) http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

Area controlled by ISIS (1 November 2014) http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

Area controlled by ISIS (3 February 2015) http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

The Golden Age of the ‘Rightly-Guided’ Caliphs, 632 -661 a. k. a. – the Rashidun Abu Bakr Umar Uthman Ali 632 -634 634 -644 644 -656 656 -661 From Marshall G. S. Hodgson. 1977. The Venture of Islam, Volume I. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. 14

The spread of Islam, 622 -750 The Rightly-Guided Caliphs followed by: Umayyad Caliphate 661 -750, based in Damascus Abbasid Caliphate 750 -1258, based in Baghdad Others… Ottoman Caliphate c. 1517 -1924, based in Istanbul 15

The early Islamic empire… 16

…is now divided into nation-states 17

Source: Thorp, Gene, and Swati Sharma. 2015. “Fighters to Syria. ” The Washington Post January 27.

The anti-ISIS coalition

The fight in Iraq General Qasem Soleimani