The Ideology Of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Research Paper Example

The Ideology Of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Introduction ISIS or the Islamic state is an extremist movement that makes even Al-Qaeda squeamish. It attracts militants who are eager to build the new caliphate from all over the world. The ISIS army is a mixture of extremists from different parts of the universe including Chechen snipers, Saudi Arabia’s car bombers and western misfits like Douglas McAuthur McCain who has signed to fight among them. The group has kidnapped and murdered American journalists, butchered over seven hundred Sheitats in Syria, and threaten the existence of the Iraq’s Yazidi community. They employ the vicious Hudud punishments in enforcing sharia laws in the areas they control in Iraq and Syria. The Jihadist group is also known as the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) and controls an unrecognized sate and caliphate in the Middle East. The Origin ISIS originated from the almost fallen Al-Qaeda. The Al-Qaeda who embarked on arbitrary and brutal treatment of civilians tried to ignite a sectarian war to the majority Shia community in 2006 under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The ignition was almost a success after they bombed a Shia shrine, Al-Askariya Mosque, in Samarra sparking retaliatory attacks. Their leader was however killed and the group was nearly destroyed (Charles River Editors, 2014, 10). When the US forces left Iraq, a ‘third generation’ of Al Qaeda emerged. Rebranding their name to Islamic State in Iraq, 2006 saw the birth of this new generation of Al Qaeda. They would later add and Syria to the name to complete the name ISIS. The Shia-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, they claimed, starved resources and excluded the Sunnis from a share of power. The new leader, Abu Omar al Baghdadi re-established the group’s influence through ideologies when Sunni senior political leaders were being arrested and people from the Sunni dissent suffered heavy-handed suppression (Charles River Editors, 2014, 16). In 2010, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed in a joint US-Iraq operation paving way for the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi governance. In 2013, ISI absorbed the Al-Nusra Front which was an Al Qaeda backed militant group in Syria. Al-Baghdadi named the group ISIS. Al-Nusra Front’s leader and Al Qaeda however later renounced the ties after months of infighting. The group then started taking control of cities starting with Mosul and Tikrit freeing prisoners and radicalizing young people. The Ideology The group is both politically charged and still rules through Islam fanaticism. The group plans of starting an Islamic state where Sharia laws will be followed to book. They insist of separate schools for girls and boys or basically separating them during schooling. Women must also wear a full veil or niqab in public. Music will also be banned and the fast will be lawfully enforced during Ramadan. The Sharia laws will cover both religious and non-religious aspects of the citizen’s lives. Their propaganda is so attractive because it promises to deliver a Pure Mohammadan Islam state once the caliphate has defeated the infidel enemies. That is how they are able to recruit new well-educated Muslims from Europe and America adding another promise of a first truly Islamic university in history (Charles River Editors, 2014, 45). Though they have wrapped up their narrative in the familiar language of the other extremists groups, jihad and fighting for the grounds of Allah, ISIS ideology amounts to destroying anyone or anything that disagrees with them. It is just a reincarnated Al Qaeda with a different name and a different way of approaching the taking over of the Middle East. Its ideology, which seeks to overturn the status quo and expand constantly, seems susceptible of living beyond the elimination of the primary advocates. ISIS seems to be following the ideologies of Wahhabism and Qutbism but in the violence of all forms with evil subordinating the good. They believe that the Muslims have been corrupted and seduced by the West deviating them from true Islam and therefore need liberation (ʻInāyat, 2005, 35). Collection Programs One of the best collection programs that could be utilized in the ISIS area is HUMINT. This is the use of human intelligence to gather intelligence by means of interpersonal contact. This method, though dangerous, is the only effective method that could be used to obtain intelligence about the internal ISIS operations that cannot otherwise be gathered. The group is sworn to a secretive life and only joining them could allow a soldier to get the critical information about their operations. ISIS, unlike other extremist movement does not see itself as an organization whose goal is only to get a geographically ill-defined Islamic community but sees itself as modern nation state (Schnell, 2013, 30). ISIS has periodically issued threats to the United States and the West but it is mainly concentrating on acquisition of ground in the Middle East. Having their eyes mainly on Syria and Iraq, the group has hidden secrets about their operations of forming the so called Islamic state. No extremist group has ever referred to themselves as a state and this new ideology shows that ISIS has so much they plan to gain and acquire and thus the need for HUMINT within the arms of their leadership. HUMINT could get in to the ISIS acting as the many recruits who are being appealed to join the movement. They have been appealing to Muslims around the world who sees the West as having neo-colonialism ambitions in the Muslim world to join them asserting that their main goal is to eliminate the artificial boundaries separating the Muslims and the middle East and throughout the world. The other collection program that could be utilized is the SIGINT. This is the intelligence gathered by interception of signals in the communication of the enemies and from electronic signals from devices that are not actually used in communication. In the case of ISIS Predator Drones could be effective though the movement’s conspiracy and victimization has been so perfect in mobilizing and creating solidarity within the members that it has attracted great scholars and professionals who may detect the drones very easily. GEOINT or else Geospatial Intelligence will give an overall of communication capabilities within the ISIS state. OSINT or open source intelligence is always the best type of intelligence gathering since it brings about 50% of the intelligence. It is finding, selecting and acquiring information from the available public sources. It should always be employed. Intelligent Community Key Players The members of the Intelligence Community that would be the best collectors of intelligence on ISIS should include the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense main objective would be the special operation that requires military force and skills. These include protecting the people from violence, protecting key facilities, controlling mass movements of people, and also providing essential supplies and services to the people affected by the War. They should also augment the capabilities of Civil Organizations. Their activities and operations should be executed by geographic combatant’s commanders, subordinate theater special operations command commanders and other joint force commanders. They should work together with other interagency elements and the indigenous and surrogate forces whom they share mutual threats (William et al., 2012). The FBI should also be included in the collection of intelligence sine the ISIS has infiltrated into the US and all the other countries. The threat of this infiltration increases as days go by since the ISIS is still recruiting members from all around the globe. They should be fully involved in the CONUS operations (William et al., 2012). The CIA which is mainly in charge of the OCONUS operations should also be involved in the collection of intelligence. They should also provide the HUMINT intelligence and get ways of getting into the ISIS operations (William et al., 2012). Intelligence Analysis Strategies The most effective analysis strategy is the Red Team Analysis. The analysts’ role should be to put themselves in ISIS members’ shoes and get to know the operations of the extremists group. This is because most of the ISIS operations intelligence would not be otherwise gathered due to their secretive and brutal methods of keeping it. Rational Choice Theory is also a strategy that should be utilized. This theory will explain all the social phenomena in terms of rational calculations made by self-interested individuals. It will explain why the ISIS behave in the ways they do and thus countering them will have been made easier. It will also be used to get the history of ISIS and thus the future plans of the group (Eriksson, 2011, 16). The last intelligence strategy that should be utilized is ‘know the enemy, think like the enemy’. This is getting to know their masters, what they are trying to accomplish and where they get their finances from. There should also be intelligence gathered on what has been their key to surviving, how they are drawing support and how the surrounding states fit into the picture. Their relationships with other Al Qaeda groups should also be considered. The most important intelligence however would be to know their strategy, the significance of their threats and where their weaknesses lie (Clark, 2010, 76). Bibliography Charles River Editors, 2014. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: The History of ISIS/ISIL. London: CreateSpace. Clark, Robert M. 2010. Intelligence Analysis: A Target-Centric Approach. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Eriksson, Lina. 2011. Rational Choice Theory: Potential and Limits. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ʻInāyat, Ḥamīd. 2005. Modern Islamic Political Thought: The Response of the Shī'ī and Sunnī Muslims to the Twentieth Century. London: I.B. Tauris. Schnell, Jim. 2013. Culture and Communication Within HUMINT and Military Intelligence. Saarbrücken: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. . William H. Webster Commission on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Intelligence, and the Events at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009, and William H. Webster. 2012. Final report of the William H. Webster Commission on the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Intelligence, and the events at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation. . Read More