The Secret Charm of the Islamic Caliphate
A very good article from the American think tank Middle East Institute, about the secret charm of the Islamic Caliphate. See “The Shifting Definition of ISIS' Caliphate”, August 2016.
The article wonders why is it that more and more terrorist groups are pledging their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), when ISIS is retreating, losing more and more ground, due to the attacks of the NATO bombings. What is the secret charm of the Islamic Caliphate, why it is losing on the ground but it is gaining in popularity in the world of terror?
Map The Dream of the Islamic Caliphate
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/30/article-2674736-1F46221200000578-100_634x381.jpg
Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Islamic State of Libya in Libya, are only some of the terrorist organizations that are pledging their allegiance to the Islamic State.
The article says that the notion of the Caliphate has been used in various ways in the past, sometimes to empower the Caliphs (Sultans) and sometimes to unite the Islamic World against the West i.e. against the Crusaders. According to the article ISIS is using the idea of the Caliphate in order to unite the Muslim World against the West. Fighting the Crusaders is a very popular idea in the Islamic World, and has been used many times by the Caliphates against the West during the previous centuries.
What is very interesting is that the Islamic State local branches operate independently from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. For example the Islamic State of Afghanistan and Pakistan was created by some ex-members of the Pakistani Taliban, who were not happy with the Taliban, and wanted to rebrand themselves. But they were operating more like the Taliban and less than the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. There is always the possibility of course that they Islamic States of Afghanistan and of Iraq were exchanging favors.
But witnessing the father of the modern Caliphate i.e. ISIS, to be shrinking in Iraq and Syria, and at the same time the project that was initially launched by it in Iraq and Syria to gain in popularity, it is something that must be explained.
