The History of ISIL - Essay Example

Its mission is to radicalize nations into being one single Islamic state governed by Sharia laws. The group’s origin dates back to 1999-2003 during the Iraq war and a time when Sadam was under scrutiny by the US Government. The group was formed to promote the existing war in Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites, where Shiites were supposed to die because it was heretic. In addition, the group wanted to expand its control over Iraq and Syria. It emerged from Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which was a major character in the Sunni insurgency. The group was then under the leadership of Musab al-Zarqawi then. However, after his death, the group merged with other extremist groups to form the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). However, in 2007, things lost balance in the group after many Iraq Sunni groups differed with ISI because of boundary disagreements.

In 2011, the group emerged after foreign troops withdrew from Iraq and when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was appointed the group’s new leader, who chose former Ba’athist military and intelligence officials as his assistants. However, in 2012, it adopted a new Moniker and branded itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

The group has 7,000 members, 3,000 of whom are foreigners mainly from Britain and Belgium. According to reports published on the CBS News website, ISIL (S) uses social media to recruit most of its members, especially from the West. In addition, it has a multilingual media group called Al Hayat, which specializes in printing and distributing glossy magazines and videos that aim at influencing people into being part of the group. Its main sources of finance are smuggling, extortion, and outlawed crimes. It is estimated that the group can make up to $8 million per month.

The group’s organizational structure is composed of a supreme leader, who currently is Al-Baghdadi, who has two deputies, one in charge of Syria, and the other in charge of Iraq. The leader has cabinet ministers, who offer advice and have independent roles including being in charge of salaries, transport, treasury, security, and prisoners (Baker, 2014). A selected ‘War Office’ is responsible for all logistical costs and other technicalities during wars. The group has approximately 1,000 medium to top-level field commanders who get a salary of $300-$2,000 per month, depending on the risks involved in their jobs.

ISIL proves to have a history that dates back to 1200 AD when the caliphate was established. While many governments have joined hands to fight the existence of this group, it sounds difficult because it is engaged in a war with the US and its sympathizers. Radicalization and ideologies in this group are the main reason why it is difficult to fight and wipe it out completely. The huge financial muscle makes it a superpower that can soon overturn the Iraqi and Syrian governments.