A Guide to Who's Who in Today's International Islamic Militants (Part 1)

This will be Part 1 of a 2 part post on the latest trends in international Islamic militant groups.  For all of my gainfully employed friends, I thought it might be handy to break down all the acronyms you may be seeing in your newsfeeds but not have the time to look up or read about in depth.

 

Okay, we'll start with the the name or name on the tip of everybody's tongue, the One Direction of the 24 hour news cycle, if you will.  The trouble is, there seems to be no consensus on just what the name of this group is: ISIS? ISIL? IS group?  I prefer ISIL because I think it is a more accurate, if a little dated, translation, which I'll explain in a minute, but I am sensitive to the argument of talking heads on TV that it is more awkward to pronounce out loud and repeatedly than ISIS.

 

Here's the breakdown.  The Islamic State of Iraq was a conglomeration of Sunni Iraqi militant groups which fought under Zarqawi against American forces in Iraq and took over broad swaths of Iraqi territory as coalition forces drained out of Iraq (leaving the country's armed forces and other security structures in shambles, post-Saddam) in 2011.  They were so violent in their tactics as they tried to govern territory that included Anbar province and Kirkuk, among other provinces, that they eventually alienated everyday Sunnis and lost the group much of its power. However, by then, the group had gained a foothold in Syria.

 

As with Saddam in Iraq, Assad in Syria runs essentially a secular dictatorship dedicated to nepotism, holding onto power, crushing and torturing challengers, and hoarding resources.  It is really the Sunni insurgent groups that are projecting a Shia religious identity onto Assad, because the Alawites are a Shia spinoff group, to galvanize their followers, but he has not really enforced a religious identity in his country before.  He has had to reach out to Iran for resources during the civil war, but Syria used to be a place where women could wear western dress, go to college, travel around unaccompanied, etc.  The religious questions are much more relevant to the militias fighting Assad's regime than to the regime itself.  The insurgent groups like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq that took up the fight when the Arab Spring peaceful revolution in Syria gave way to civil war are Sunni extremists.  Assad has Drop Dead Fred's I'm Too Sexy on his iPod.  No really, he does.

 

Which brings us back to the name.  The Islamic State of Iraq, in Arabic is Al Dawla Islamiya al Iraq.  As their ambitions have broadened, the group has become Al Dawla Islamiyq al Iraq wa al Sham.  Al Sham in Islamic history refers to a big chunk of territory that includes Syria, part of Southern Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, in addition to Northern and Western Iraq.  You hear some news services referring to ISIS (NBC, for example), for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  Obviously, the group intends to take over more than just Syria so this name would be misleading.  Al Sham is also slightly different than what, in English, we would refer to (albeit somewhat archaically) as the Levant, but it is closer.  The White House and the UN use ISIL.  If I believed people were using ISIS to mean "of Iraq and al Sham," then that would be closest, but I think most people mean Syria when they say it.

 

The terrorists themselves have shortened their name to The Islamic State (I find the lack of a geographic designation a little chilling, no?).  Al Jazeera calls them the Islamic State Group so that viewers don't confuse them with an actual state somewhere (which was also a White House concern).  In Arabic, there is the shorthand Daish.

 

Al Qaeda's central leadership, as many know, is not a big fan of ISIL.  Perhaps there are only so many shady Saudi donors and disaffected youths to go around so this hostility is founded in some jealousy of the new kid on the block. Early on in Iraq, they were pushed out of Al Qaeda for being too extreme (because their violent tactics were alienating much needed local support) and they have jostled for power with Al Nusra Front, the face of Al Qaeda in Syria (the group that released American hostage Theo Curtis last month).  But now they are growing in popularity as they grow in fame and territory and they are starting to absorb some Al Qaeda splinter groups.  The Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria, formerly of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Al Qaeda's North Africa branch) announced they would join ISIL today. 

 

To clarify, whatever you call them (ISIS, ISIL, IS, Daish), these are the guys the White House and the State Department announced that we are at war with this week.  Leaving aside that Congress has not yet declared war, I just wanted it to be clear, whether we are or are not technically at war, these are the guys we are dropping bombs on. 

Stay tuned for another new post on Al Shebab, AQAP and more!

 

Have a request?  If you have heard or read about an international terror group you would like to know more about, let me know in the comments and I'll include your request in my Part 2 post.