The Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria - 1603 Words

The Background: The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) came to power a decade ago as a small terrorist threat that grew out of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. When the United States began to pull its troops in the Middle East, Iraq leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, took advantage of the unstable government and reinvigorated ISIS. In just this past year, ISIS has shown us that it is more powerful than Al Qaeda by conquering oil fields and territory in Iraq and Syria with the hopes of creating a caliphate- an Islamic state. ISIS uses violence to take control of Middle Eastern territory from non-Muslims, Americans, Westerners, and non-Sunni Muslims. There are three main concerns associated with ISIS. First, it has former military†¦show more content†¦This leads us to worry whether or not they will bring the jihadists back to our country. The Actors: The issue of ISIS is slowly drawing interest from more and more countries the more powerful it gets. At the core, the main actors are Iraq and Syria because ISIS has seized their countries. The United States and Iran have been getting more involved as the group has become a greater threat. However, there are many other actors involved. Countries with a higher Muslim population have sent over 11,000 foreign troops into ISIS territory for combat. Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, France, and Russia have sent the most jihads to Syria and Iraq, according to CNN. However, states with relatively small Muslim populations, such as Finland, Ireland, Australia, Belgium, and Denmark, have also sent a comparatively large number of jihads. The Interests: The goal of ISIS is simple. It wants to take as much territory has possible to create a purely extremists Islamic state. According to Vox, ISIS wants to seize the governments of unstable, heavily populated Muslim nations and establish their own caliphate in its place. ISIS is aware that this is no easy task so they have imposed an â€Å"either be on board or get killed† method of attack. ISIS has held to this policy as, according to Human Rights Watch, it killed 200 Iraqis between June 11th and June 14th. On the other front, the United States and Iran want Iraq to push back against ISIS force. Syria is too corrupt to fight the