Islamic State (Essay Sample)

The Islamic State
Name
Institutional affiliation
The Islamic State
The Islamic State (IS) is a militant group controlling large swaths of land straddling Iraq and Syria. It is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a Sunni insurgent group that emerged after the US-led invasion in 2003. The group was largely dormant from 2006 to 2009 because of the presence of US troops. It also faced isolation from other Sunni Islamic organizations such as Sahwa. However, when the US withdrew its troops, the group resurfaced again, taking advantage of weak governance in the region to strengthen itself (BBC, 2014).
The group’s short-term objective is to establish a caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria. It ignores international boundaries; when it seized most parts of northern Iraq and eastern Syria in June 2014, it declared a caliphate with its capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Currently, it enforces a strict version of Sunni Islam in the areas under its control. Sunni Muslims adhere to a strict version of Islam because they consider themselves the only true believers. Their point is that the rest of the world comprises nonbelievers who are out to destroy Islam. Thus, the IS uses this version of Islam to justify its brutality (BBC, 2014).
In August and September 2014, the group attracted widespread condemnation when it beheaded two American journalists and a British aid worker. The executions were triggered by the US-led intervention in the form of airstrikes, which were aimed at protecting American interests in the region (CNN, 2014). Although the US had distanced itself from intervening in the conflict, it changed its policy in August 2014. Since then, the military campaign against IS has expanded to eastern Syria and southern Turkey. Some Western and Arab states have also joined the fight against the militant group (BBC, 2014).
Despite the US-led airstrikes, IS remains a real threat to some minority groups in the Middle East. Human rights organizations have accused the group of mass killings of non-Muslims, particularly the Yazidis. In recent days, the Iraqi government has also accused the group of murdering at least 322 people from the Albu Minr tribe (CNN, 2014). The group remains a f...