| ID | 170795 |
| Title Proper | Ideology of the Islamic State |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Sarkar, Saurav |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The Islamic State (IS) terror group continues to operate and endure
five years after its founding in 2014 and after the loss of its caliphate in
March this year. The IS has also endured the killings of its Caliph Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi in October and other senior leaders in the last few
years. A factor in the resilience of the IS is the nature of its organisational
structure – which is quite ambiguous, with no clear hierarchy – that is
not severely affected by leadership decapitations or territorial losses.
However, a larger force behind its survival is its ideological appeal and
emphasis on using violence to achieve its ends. The IS has invested a
lot of resources and expertise in propagating and micromanaging its
ideological message across the jihadist landscape. The ideology of the
IS – a mix of Salafi-jihadism, Sunni extremism and a nihilistic outlook
– has found resonance among radical sympathisers worldwide and
had managed to bridge the gap between jihadist thought and action by
establishing a functioning Islamic caliphate in 2014, something that no
other Islamist terror group had been able to do |
| `In' analytical Note | Defence and Diplomacy Vol. 9, No.1, Oct-Dec 2019; p 23-35 |
| Journal Source | Defence and Diplomacy 2019-12 9, 1 |
| Key Words | Islamic State ; Islamist Terrorism ; Jihadist ; Islamist Terrorist ; Islamist Terrorist Groups |