Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS. Sometimes called by its Arabic acronym, Daesh, mainly by detractors due to the name’s similarity to words meaning “one who crushes or tramples” and “one who sows discord.” First established in 1999, it pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda and fought against the invasion of Iraq. It declared itself a worldwide caliphate in 2014.

Formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), ISIL had conquered an area between Raqqua, Syria and Mosul, Iraq, and declared themselves to be a worldwide caliphate. The Islamic State created its own military, courts, currency, and passports, and enforced a particularly brutal interpretation of the Quran, the holy book of Islam.

Islam is the most recent of the three great Abrahamic monotheist religions, following Judaism and Christianity onto the world stage beginning in 610 CE with the revelations of the prophet Muhammad. These revelations, ultimately codified in the Quran, built on the previous Abrahamic religions of the region, utilizing many of the most important figures and concepts found in Judaism and Christianity. Islam acknowledges such figures as the archangels Gabriel and Michael; Abraham, the father of Isaac; Noah and his Ark; Jonah and the whale; the prophet Moses; and Jesus of Nazareth (regarded as a prophet rather than a divinity). Unlike Christianity, which developed under the rule of the rebellion-wary Roman Empire, Islam does not draw any distinction between religious and temporal authority. Some traditionalists hold that the only legitimate law is religious law, Sharia, and that religious leaders are the only legitimate leaders. Many modern Muslim-majority nations adopted secular laws and government over the centuries, reserving Sharia for
personal or family conflicts. Many fundamentalists oppose such secularism in government.

ISIL’s Sunni fundamentalism holds to be apostates not only all Shia but also all Sunni who do not accept the authority of ISIL. As apostates, those denounced may be attacked, killed, robbed, enslaved, or imprisoned.

Redefining who is truly Muslim in order to remove the protections granted to those living under Sharia is a characteristic ISIL shares with the Wahhabist sect of Saudi Arabia. However, ISIL combines radical fundamentalism with contempt for Islamic scholarship, preferring a literalist and apocalyptic reading of the Quran.

ISIL’s mythology predicts an Islamic version of the battle of Armageddon near the town of Dabiq in Syria, where an army of angels will join the jihadis in a final battle against all infidels and apostates.

This myth serves a specific political philosophy. Once the trappings of religion are stripped away, ISIL is a genocidal police state.