A presentation for a University of Nebraska at Omaha graduate seminar in mass communication.

1. Who is ISIS?
M.G. Moulton
COMM8570
University of Nebraska at Omaha

2. ISIS – Many Names
• Islamic State in Iraq (ISI)–2006
• Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
• Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)
– Arab geographical term for Damascus
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
– US reference
• al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil ’Iraq wal-Sham (Da'ish)
– Arab reference
• State of the Islamic Caliphate (SIC)
(M.R., 2014)

3. ISIS Origins
• Off-shoot of Al-Qaeda
• Primary Al-Qaeda Affiliates:
– Al-Qaeda in Yemen 2000 (USS Cole)
– Al-Qaeda in Iraq (Zarqawi) 2004
– Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb (Algeria) 2006
– Al-Qaeda Kurdish Battalions (Ansar al-Islam) 2007
– Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula–AQAP(merged
Yemen & Saudi Arabia) 2009 (Inspire Magazine)
(Crenshaw,2010-2015)

4. Al-Qaeda in Iraq
• Founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Jordanian); six
jihadi groups
• Brutal tactics; proto-caliphate; anti Shi’a
• Zarqawi killed in 2006
• Jihadi faction versus a state
• Counter terror operations, loss of support
• Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi new leader in Iraq 2010
• Capitalized on anti-Shi’a Sunni sentiment
(Kirda, 2011; Bunzel, 2015 )

5. Who is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?
• Born 1971 in Samara, Iraq
• Claims descent from Prophet Muhammed
• Doctorate in Islamic Studies?
• Preacher?
• Detained by US 2004/2005
• Appointed IS Emir by Shura Council in 2010
• Broke with Zawahiri
(McCoy, 2014; Bunzel, 2015)

6. Dissension with Al-Qaeda
• al-Baghdadi’s ISIS expands into Syria (April 2013)
• Infighting with Al-Qaeda Syria affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra
• Al-Qaeda loss of control
• Al-Nusra & Syrian rebel groups oppose ISIS
• ISIS tactics more radical
• Al-Qaeda’s Zawahiri disavows ISIS (February 2014)
• bay‘a - oath; contract (ISIS or Al-Qaeda)
(Mendelsohn, 2014; Bunzel, 2015 )
• AQAP rejects ISIS caliphate
• ISIS gain adherents - Algeria, Sinai, Libya, Saudi Arabia,
Yemen (Joscelyn, 2014;)

7. ISIS Ideology
• Jihadi–Salafism
– “extremist and minoritarian reading of Islamic
scripture that is also textually rigorous, deeply
rooted in a premodern theological tradition” (p. 7)
• Salafism
– “theological movement in Sunni Islam concerned
with purifying the faith” (p. 8)
– shirk (idolatry)
– tawhid (affirming Gods oneness)
– “only true Muslims” (p. 8)
– anti-Shi’ite; Wahhabi tradition
(Bunzel, 2015)

8. ISIS Ideology Continued
• Re-establishment of Caliphate
– Muslim Brotherhood (ISIS anti-Brotherhood,
anti-Hamas)
• Offensive jihad
• takfir - excommunication
• Turki al-Bin‘ali – resident Islamic scholar
(Bunzel, 2015)

9. ISIS Actions
• $500 million funding from bank looting (Mendelsohn, 2014)
• Capture of territory in Iraq & Syria (June 2014)
• Act of barbarism - slavery, beheading, crucifixion
• Decimation of Yazidis
• Establishment of Caliphate
– need to have territory to establish caliphate
– bay‘a to al-Baghdadi
– Al-Qaeda counter caliphate in Afghanistan led by Mullah
Umar
(Wood, 2015; Bunzel, 2015)

10. ISIS Message
• al-Furqan Media Institute (Prucha, 2015)
• Dabiq, Islamic State magazine (Wood, 2015)
• Twitter
• YouTube
– Encoded subtitles

11. How To Oppose ISIS Propaganda
• Understanding of ideology
• Study of messages
• Theoretical understanding of the
messages and channels use by ISIS

12. References
• Bunzel, C. (2015, March). From paper state to caliphate: The ideology of the Islamic State. The
Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, [Analysis Paper 19. Retrieved from
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/03/ideology-of-islamic-state-
bunzel/the-ideology-of-the-islamic-state.pdf
• Crenshaw, M. (2010-2015). Mapping militant organizations. Retrieved from
http://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/
• Joscelyn, T. (2014, November 21). AQAP rejects Islamic State’s ‘caliphate,’ blasts group for sowing dissent among
jihadists. The Long War Journal. Retrieved from
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/11/al_qaeda_in_the_arab_1.php
• Kirdar, M. J. (2011, June). Al Qaeda in Iraq. Center for Strategic & International Studies, Homeland
Security & Counterterrorism Program Transnational Threats Project, 1. Retrieved from
http://csis.org/files/publication/110614_Kirdar_AlQaedaIraq_Web.pdf
• McCoy, T. (2014, June 11). How ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the world’s most
powerful jihadist leader. The Washington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/11/how-isis-leader-abu-bakr-
al-baghdadi-became-the-worlds-most-powerful-jihadi-leader/

13. References
• Mendelsohn, B. (2014, June 15). Collateral damage in Iraq: The rise of ISIS and the fall of al Qaeda.
Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141567/barak-
mendelsohn/collateral-damage-in-iraq
• M. R. (2014, September 28). The many names of ISIS (also known as IS, ISIL, SIC and Da'ish). The
Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-
explains/2014/09/economist-explains-19
• Prucha, N. (2015, February 9). Turning the volume up to eleven is not enough: Why counter
strategies need to target extremist clusters. Jihadica [blog]. Retrieved from
http://www.jihadica.com/turning-the-volume-up-to-11-is-not-enough-why-counter-strategies-
have-to-target-extremist-clusters/
• Sly, Liz. (2014, February 3). Al-Qaeda disavows any ties with radical Islamist ISIS group in Syria,
Iraq. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/al-
qaeda-disavows-any-ties-with-radical-islamist-isis-group-in-syria-iraq/2014/02/03/2c9afc3a-8cef-
11e3-98ab-fe5228217bd1_story.html
• Wood, G. (2015, March). What ISIS really wants. Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved from
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/