{{Short description|Extremist interpretation of Salafi jihadism}}{{Cleanup rewrite|date=May 2026|it has bizarre section headings, disjoined citations, and wonky layout}}{{Copy edit|date=May 2026|for=incomplete/disorganized formatting}}
The '''ideology of the Islamic State''', sometimes referred to as '''Daeshism''',<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Future of Modern Terrorism Daeshism in the Middle East and the World | journal=Political and InternationalResearches Quarterly | date=March 2019 | volume=1 | issue=38 | page=211 | url=https://sanad.iau.ir/en/Journal/jpir/Article/664371?jid=664371 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/10/28/2129076/death-of-baghdadi-not-end-of-daeshism-iran|title=Death of Baghdadi Not End of Daeshism: Iran - Politics news|website=Tasnim News Agency}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2026}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/441489/Daeshism-still-exists-not-ended-by-al-Baghdadi-s-death|title=Daeshism still exists, not ended by al-Baghdadi's death|date=October 28, 2019|website=Tehran Times}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2026}} has been described as being a blend of Salafi jihadism,<ref name="Bunzel">{{cite journal |last=Bunzel |first=Cole |date=March 2015 |url=http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/03/ideology-of-islamic-state-bunzel/The-ideology-of-the-Islamic-State.pdf?la=en |title=From Paper State to Caliphate: The Ideology of the Islamic State |journal=The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World |volume=19 |pages=1–48 |publisher=Center for Middle East Policy (Brookings Institution) |location=Washington, D.C. |format=PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321022758/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/03/ideology-of-islamic-state-bunzel/The-ideology-of-the-Islamic-State.pdf?la=en |archive-date=21 March 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=10 September 2020}}</ref><ref name="what-isis-really-wants">{{cite magazine |last=Wood |first=Graeme |author-link=Graeme Wood (journalist) |title=What ISIS Really Wants |magazine=The Atlantic |location=Washington, D.C. |date=March 2015 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216095910/https://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/ |archive-date=16 February 2015 |url-status=live |access-date=10 September 2020}}</ref> Sunni Islamist fundamentalism,<ref>{{Cite book |last=A. Gerges |first=Fawaz |title=ISIS: A History |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-691-17000-8 |location=Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 |page=17 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> Wahhabism,<ref name="Armstrong 2014">{{cite magazine |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |author-link=Karen Armstrong |title=Wahhabism to ISIS: how Saudi Arabia exported the main source of global terrorism |magazine=New Statesman |location=London |date=27 November 2014 |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/11/wahhabism-isis-how-saudi-arabia-exported-main-source-global-terrorism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141127132619/http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/11/wahhabism-isis-how-saudi-arabia-exported-main-source-global-terrorism |archive-date=27 November 2014 |access-date=10 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Crooke |first=Alastair |author-link=Alastair Crooke |orig-date=First published 27 August 2014 |date=30 March 2017 |title=You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html |work=Huffington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140828141900/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html |archive-date=28 August 2014 |url-status=live |access-date=10 September 2020}}</ref> and Qutbism.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last= Williams|first=Dodeye U.|date=2018|title=The Incongruity of Sayyid Qutb's Political Islam and National Integration in Nigeria: A Descriptive Analysis|url=https://politicsandreligionjournal.com/index.php/prj/article/view/317|journal=Politics and Religion Journal|volume=12|issue=2|issn=1820-6581|pages=245–262|doi=10.54561/prj1202245w|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author1=Sazanov, Ploom|author2=Vladimir, Illimar|date=2021|title=Some Remarks on the Ideological Core and Political Pillars of the So-called Islamic State|url=https://www.academia.edu/50040064|journal=Modern Management Review|volume=26|issue=1|pages=59–80|doi=10.7862/rz.2021.mmr.06|s2cid=237957039 |issn=|quote="Thus, in essence, ISIS draws heavily from the Qutbist branch of Salafism, using and promoting the ideas and views of such Islamist scholars and spokesmen as Sayyid Qutb..."|via=Academia.edu|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=A. George|first=Fawaz|title=ISIS: A History|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-691-17000-8|location=United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 L 1TW|pages=217–218}}</ref> Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, the Islamic State defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".<ref name="Bunzel"/>{{rp|38}}
Important doctrines of IS include its belief that it represents a restoration of the caliphate of early Islam to which all Muslims are required to pledge allegiance;<ref name=speckhard-29-8-2014>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140917040453/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/anne-speckhard/isis-iraq_b_5541693.html Endtimes Brewing] Huffington Post (UK) article by Anne Speckhard, 29 August 2014</ref> that a "defiled" Islam must be purged of apostasy, often with bloody sectarian killings,<ref name=Crooke-30-8-2014/> that the final Day of Judgment by God is near and will follow the defeat of the army of "Rome" by IS;<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> that a strict adherence to following the precepts "established by the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers" is necessary, surpassing even that of other Salafi-Jihadi groups.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/>
==Importance== Experts disagree on the importance of ideology in IS. According to Cole Bunzel, not all members of IS are aware of the ideology of the group they support.<ref name="Bunzel"/> On the other hand, Princeton scholar Bernard Haykel, who specializes in the study of IS, argues that many Western observers fail to understand the passionate attachment of IS—including its rank and file—to religious doctrine: "Even the foot soldiers spout" Quranic verses "constantly. They mug for their cameras and repeat their basic doctrines in formulaic fashion, and they do it ''all the time''."<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> Fawaz A. Gerges also writes "researchers have tended to underestimate the power of the Salafi-jihadist ideology"—which he identifies as ISIL ideology—"at their own peril".<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/>
==Names which are used to describe the group== The names which are used to describe the group or its ideology vary.
===Sunni militant=== ''USA Today'' writes that "The Islamic State is a group of Sunni militants" that "believes in the strict enforcement of Sharia law."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/08/28/islamic-state-what-you-need-to-know/14675923/|title=Islamic State: What you need to know|author=Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network|date=28 August 2014|work=USA TODAY}}</ref> In a conversation with a Western journalist (Thomas L. Friedman), a deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia (Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud), described IS's message to Saudi and other Arab Muslims as: "The West is trying to enforce its agenda on you — and the Saudi government is helping them — and Iran is trying to colonize the Arab world. So we — ISIS — are defending Islam."<ref name=Friedman-bin-salman-11-25-15>{{cite news|last1=Friedman|first1=Thomas L.|title=Letter From Saudi Arabia|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/opinion/letter-from-saudi-arabia.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article|access-date=25 November 2015|agency=New York Times|date=25 November 2015}}</ref>
===Qutbi=== The Islamic State adheres to global jihadist principles and follows the hard-line ideology of al-Qaeda and many other modern-day jihadist groups.<ref name="NS">{{cite news|title = Islamic State|url = http://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Listedterroristorganisations/Pages/IslamicState.aspx|access-date = 22 July 2014|work = Australian National Security|agency = Australian Government|archive-date = 8 July 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170708054051/https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Listedterroristorganisations/Pages/IslamicState.aspx}}</ref> Sayyid Qutb is considered the "Father of the Jihadi-Salafi" movement,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Manne|first=Robert|date=7 November 2016|title=Sayyid Qutb: Father of Salafi Jihadism, Forerunner of the Islamic State|work=ABC News|url=https://www.abc.net.au/religion/sayyid-qutb-father-of-salafi-jihadism-forerunner-of-the-islamic-/10096380|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181002133334/http://www.abc.net.au/religion/sayyid-qutb-father-of-salafi-jihadism-forerunner-of-the-islamic-/10096380|archive-date=2 October 2018}}</ref> thus followers of the Salafi-Jihadi school are often derogatorily labelled as "Qutbi". Major elements of IS ideology as well as its extremist practices are thought to be derived from the Jihadist works of the Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb and the manuals of the hard-line wings of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Al-Yaqoubi |first=Muhammad |author-link=Muhammad al-Yaqoubi |year=2015 |title=Refuting ISIS: A Rebuttal Of Its Religious And Ideological Foundations |page=xii|publisher=Sacred Knowledge |location=United States|isbn=978-1-908224-12-5}}</ref>
The central role of Qutbist influence on Daesh is best captured in a saying popular among Islamic State supporters, attributed to Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye: <blockquote>"The Islamic State was drafted by Sayyid Qutb, taught by Abdullah Azzam, globalized by Osama bin Laden, transferred to reality by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and implemented by al-Baghdadis: Abu Omar and Abu Bakr."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hassan|first=Hassan|date=13 June 2016|title=The Sectarianism of the Islamic State: Ideological Roots and Political Context|url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2016/12/the-sectarianism-of-the-islamic-state-ideological-roots-and-political-context?lang=en|website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace|quote="The central role of Islamist ideas is best captured in a saying popular among Islamic State supporters, attributed to Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye: "The Islamic State was drafted by Sayyid Qutb, taught by Abdullah Azzam, globalized by Osama bin Laden, transferred to reality by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and implemented by al-Baghdadis: Abu Omar and Abu Bakr.""}}</ref></blockquote>
=== Wahhabi === Other sources trace the group's roots to Wahhabism. ''The New York Times'' wrote:
<blockquote>For their guiding principles, the leaders of the Islamic State ... are open and clear about their almost exclusive commitment to the Wahhabi movement of Sunni Islam. The group circulates images of Wahhabi religious textbooks from Saudi Arabia in the schools it controls. Videos from the group's territory have shown Wahhabi texts plastered on the sides of an official missionary van.<ref name=ISIS-NYT>{{cite news|last1=Kirkpatrick|first1=David D.|title=ISIS' Harsh Brand of Islam Is Rooted in Austere Saudi Creed|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/world/middleeast/isis-abu-bakr-baghdadi-caliph-wahhabi.html?_r=0|access-date=26 September 2014|work=The New York Times|date=24 September 2014}}</ref></blockquote>In a seven-page memorandum (titled "That Those Who Perish Would Perish upon Proof"),<ref name="jihadica.com">"That Those Who Perish Would Perish upon Proof", published May 2017 by the "Delegated Committee about takfir", http://www.jihadica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/That-Those-Who-Perish.pdf</ref> the Delegated Committee of Islamic stated that while the First Saudi State was established to wage war against the ''shirk'' (polytheism) of grave-worship for over 70 years, the IS was established "to wage war against the ''shirk'' of the constitution, representing the global system, and it was thus fought by nations in the east and the west."<ref>(Important memorandum, June 2017, p.12, Al-Hayat Media Center.).</ref> Quoting Ibn Taymiyyah, the memorandum declares:<blockquote>"Of the greatest blessings upon one for whom Allah wants wellness is that He brought him to live in this time, during which Allah is renewing the religion and reviving the slogan of the Muslims and the conditions of the believers and the mujahidin, so that they may be similar to those who preceded them of the Muhajirin and Ansar..."<ref name="jihadica.com"/></blockquote>The Islamic State aims to return to the early days of Islam, rejecting all innovations in the religion, which it believes corrupts its original spirit. It condemns later caliphates and the Ottoman Empire for deviating from what it calls pure Islam.<ref>{{cite news|last=Fernholz|first=Tim|title=Don't believe the people telling you to freak out over this "ISIL" map|url=http://qz.com/228833/dont-believe-the-people-telling-you-to-freak-out-over-this-isil-map/#/|date=1 July 2014|website=Quartz|access-date=6 July 2014}}</ref> Following Salafi-Jihadi tradition, the Islamic State condemns the followers of secular law as disbelievers, putting the current Saudi government in that category.<ref name="ibrahim140822">{{cite web |last=al-Ibrahim |first=Fouad |url=http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/21234 |title=Why ISIS is a threat to Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism's deferred promise |work=Al Akhbar (Lebanon) |date=22 August 2014 |access-date=27 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824121659/http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/21234 |archive-date=24 August 2014 }}</ref>
According to ''The Economist'', Saudi Wahhabi practices followed by the group include the establishment of religious police to root out "vice" and enforce attendance at salat prayers, the widespread use of capital punishment, and the destruction or re-purposing of any non-Sunni religious buildings.<ref name="economist-behead">{{cite news |title=Crime and punishment in Saudi Arabia: The other beheaders |newspaper=The Economist |date=20 September 2014 |url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21618918-possible-reasons-mysterious-surge-executions-other-beheaders |access-date=7 November 2014}}</ref> Bernard Haykel has described al-Baghdadi's creed as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism".<ref name=ISIS-NYT/> Alastair Crooke described the Islamic State as adopting Wahhabi "puritanism," but denying the "Saudi Kingdom any legitimacy as founders of a State, as the head of the Mosque, or as interpreter of the Qur'an. The IS claims all these attributes for itself."<ref name=Crooke-30-8-2014>{{cite web|last1=Crooke|first1=Alastair|title=The ISIS' 'Management of Savagery' in Iraq|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/iraq-isis-alqaeda_b_5542575.html|website=The World Post|access-date=2 December 2015|date=30 August 2014}}</ref>
In contrast to the centrality of Caliphate in the discourse and propaganda of the Islamic State, traditional Wahhabi scholars were not known to have called for the re-establishment of a pan-Islamic caliphate. Their doctrines on Islamic state and just leadership were a reiteration of classical Sunni beliefs and did not amount to a novel political theology. The 18th century reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was mainly concerned with implementing religious reforms and purification of faith rather than incorporating the Muslim Ummah into a unified political entity headed by a ''Khalifa''. This trend had continued in the Wahhabi treatises of the early twentieth century which didn't call for the re-establishment of a caliphate to fill the power vacuum left after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. After their conquest of Mecca, Wahhabis had not declared it the centre of a new Islamic caliphate.<ref>{{Cite book|author1=Madawi Al-Rasheed|author2=Carol Kersten |author3=Marat Shterin|title=Demystifying the Caliphate: Historical Memory and Contemporary Contexts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0-19-932795-9|location=New York|pages=117–118, 123|quote="Wahhabis are not known to have called for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. Neither their eighteenth-century classical sources nor contemporary publications endorse a call for this Islamic polity.. Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792), was mainly concerned with the purity of faith rather than the unity of the Muslim community or its incorporation in a single political entity... Neither the caliphate nor the Islamic state is theorized in the writings of Wahhabi 'ulama, including the founder of the movement.. Wahhabis are not known for producing political theology. Their views on the rightful Islamic leadership are a reiteration of classical Sunni opinions... Nothing in the Wahhabis' writings of the early twentieth century indicates that they aspired to establish a caliphate to fill the power vacuum left by the demise of the Ottoman empire. When their forces occupied Mecca in 1924 they did not declare it the centre of a new Islamic caliphate."}}</ref>
===Radical Islamist=== The BBC defines the group's ideology as "radical Islamist," that "aims to establish a "caliphate", a state ruled by a single political and religious leader according to Islamic law, or Sharia." Furthermore, the BBC adds that "IS members are jihadists who adhere to an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and consider themselves the only true believers. They hold that the rest of the world is made up of unbelievers who seek to destroy Islam, justifying attacks against other Muslims and non-Muslims alike."<ref name=":2">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144|title=What is Islamic State?|work=BBC News|date=2 December 2015}}</ref>
===Jihadi-Salafist=== Cole Bunzel of the Brookings Institution and Graeme Wood of ''The Atlantic'' state the ideology of the Islamic State is based on Jihadi-Salafism, "a distinct ideological movement in Sunni Islam". According to their works, and IS itself, it unites two streams of Islamic thought that are the original Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism."<ref name="Bunzel"/><ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/>
However, major figures of the Salafi-Jihadist movement have disassociated themselves from IS. The systematic policy of murder, brutality, excommunication (''takfir'') and anathemization were extreme even for mainstream Salafi-Jihadists. Salafi-Jihadist leader Abu Abdillah Muhammad al-Mansur, a teacher of al-Baghdadi, wrote a treatise refuting IS titled "The Islamic State between Reality and Illusion" wherein he condemned his former student as a deviant ignorant who "did not master one single book in theology or jurisprudence".<ref name="Al-Yaqoubi 2015 xx, 19, 26–27">{{Cite book |last=Al-Yaqoubi |first=Muhammad |author-link=Muhammad al-Yaqoubi |year=2015 |title=Refuting ISIS: A Rebuttal Of Its Religious And Ideological Foundations |page= xx, 19, 26–27|publisher=Sacred Knowledge |location=United States|isbn=978-1-908224-12-5}}</ref>
===Global Jihadist=== {{further|Jihadism}} Australian National Security informs that "The Islamic State is an Iraq and Syria-based Sunni extremist group and former al‑Qa'ida affiliate that adheres to the global jihadist ideology."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Listedterroristorganisations/Pages/IslamicState.aspx|title=Islamic State - Australian National Security|work=nationalsecurity.gov.au|access-date=2015-03-23|archive-date=2017-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708054051/https://www.nationalsecurity.gov.au/Listedterroristorganisations/Pages/IslamicState.aspx}}</ref>
===Khawarij=== Sunni critics, including Salafi and jihadist muftis such as Adnan al-Aroor and Abu Basir al-Tartusi, say that IS and related terrorist groups are not Sunnis, but modern-day Khawarij—Muslims who have stepped outside the mainstream of Islam—serving an imperial anti-Islamic agenda.<ref>{{cite web|last=Paraszczuk|first=Joanna|title=Umar Shishani's Second-in-Command in ISIS Slams Scholars Who "Sow Discord" & Don't Fight|url=http://www.chechensinsyria.com/?p=19207/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150520084211/http://www.chechensinsyria.com/?p=19207/|archive-date=May 20, 2015|date=7 February 2014|website=Chechens In Syria|access-date=8 July 2014}}</ref><ref name="econ140906">{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21615634-sunni-religious-authorities-turn-against-islamic-state-slow-backlash|title=The slow backlash – Sunni religious authorities turn against Islamic State|date=6 September 2014|newspaper=The Economist}}</ref>
===Islamist-fascist=== Some journalists, historians, writers and opponents of IS and totalitarian Islamism in Arabic countries have called IS and its self-proclaimed Caliphate's strictly ruled regime "Islamofascism" (other terms which have also been used are "Islamic fascism" and "Islamist fascism").<ref name="Islamic Fascism 2016">Islamic Fascism. Hamed Abdel-Samad. 2016. Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|9781633881242}}</ref>
Similarities exist between the IS militias and fascist regimes, namely their structures, their romanticized images of death, their longing for a violent struggle, their glorification of war and sacrifice, their imperialistic goals, their machismo, their brutal war crimes and the methods of torture which they used against their opponents, their hatred of pacifism, and propaganda which mixes messages about "spirituality" with militant ideals about "forging a new man" through "warfare, action and religious discipline", etc., with the ideals and mentality of "ur-fascist" regimes, and the ideals and mentality of Clerical fascist movements and regimes, for example, WWII.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/fascist-caliphate-how-islamic-state-mirrored-fascist-political-tactics-through-appealing|title=The Fascist Caliphate: How the Islamic State Mirrored Fascist Political Tactics Through Appealing to a Relatively Deprived Middle Class | Small Wars Journal|access-date=Sep 14, 2025}}</ref><ref name="Islamic Fascism 2016"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-liberal-uncanny-isis-_b_8934148|title=The Liberal Uncanny: ISIS is Fascist (And So Are We?)|date=11 January 2016}}</ref> For example, the fanatically extremist Orthodox Christian Romanian fascist Iron Guard movement and the Hungarian extremist Catholic fascist Arrow Cross movement both spread similar messages in order to unite the members of their death squads and paramilitary organizations, boost their morale and school them in ideals about becoming "higher" men through hardness, war, fanatic religious worship, and motivate them to commit acts of intolerance and brutality against members of other races and anyone else who opposed their ideas. Their methods of "punishing" non-believers, as well as political and religious opponents, have also been compared. For example, the Iron Guard hanged Jews on meat-hooks in slaughterhouses during pogroms in Bucharest during the 1940s, and it slaughtered them according to kosher methods and wrote the word "kosher" on their corpses, including the corpses of schoolchildren, in order to desecrate the victims and their religion.<ref>The Holocaust in Romania. Radu Ioan. Ivan R. Dee.</ref><ref>The Legionnary Movement after Codreanu</ref> During its strict rule of Raqqa, IS published execution videos in which it murdered people on meat-hooks in a Syrian slaughterhouse according to Halal slaughter methods, during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2016/09/13/isis-butchers-hang-prisoners-from-meat-hooks/|title=ISIS butchers hang prisoners from meat hooks|date=13 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/dead-people-meat-hooks-sex-11406158|title = Sex slave reveals full scale of ISIS terror during four years in captivity| website=Daily Mirror |date = 25 October 2017}}</ref> Forced participation in religious ceremonies was another indoctrination tool which was used by all of the Clerical fascist puppet-states and IS because they believed that forced participation in religious ceremonies was "necessary" in order to "teach the people" through force.
The modern IS regime and the old Fascist movements openly advocated genocide, and they also committed genocide against minorities and murdered anyone else who did not conform to their worldviews, such as "traitors" to their faiths or countries, members of different ethnic groups, people who practiced different religions, atheists, members of progressive or secular groups (for example, Jewish people, socialists and Slavs in Nazi-occupied Europe and Kurds, Yazidis and members of non-religious Syrian groups in IS-occupied zones), people who their ideologies considered "weak", "decadent", "pacifist", etc. (see the Fascist & Nazi ideas of "purity", supermen and subhumans).<ref>The Rise of the Islamic State. Patrick Cockburn. ASIN: B00OWWGMVS</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Nazismens och fascismens idéer. Herbert Tingsten. 1965</ref><ref>The Metaphysics of War. Julius Evola.</ref>
In classical Italian Fascism, and the so-called "ur-fascist" weltanschauung, the belief in performing actions for the sake of actions, the idea that war was a "natural place for the worthy man" and the belief that conservative and extreme traditionalist values should be defended were all important parts of the movement's ideology and "culture of violence"; the same contempt for "weakness", and the glorification/romanticism of engaging in "actions that speak louder than words" (i.e. terrorism and violence) and the belief that going to war is something which "the new man" should "naturally want to do" is just as central and important to IS's ideology, propaganda and recruiting tactics as it was to the European Fascists. Fascism and IS's variant of Islamism are ultra traditionalist and they also have goals and dreams of waging war in order to conquer territory and form an "empire". Fascists want to reconquer territory and restore the glory of the Roman Empire, while IS wants to conquer territory and create its own version of a Caliphate. This view which is based on machismo, the desire to rule over conquered lands and cities and impose a harsh regime on others with the right of might is central to both movements' ideologies.<ref>Patrick Cockburn. The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>Who were the fascists. Book.</ref>
The IS ideology has many similarities to Italian futurism.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The "futurist" aesthetics of ISIS|first=Thorsten|last=Botz-Bornstein|date=Jan 1, 2017|journal=Journal of Aesthetics & Culture|volume=9|issue=1|article-number=1271528|via=Taylor and Francis+NEJM|doi=10.1080/20004214.2017.1271528}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dokumen.pub/political-aesthetics-of-isis-and-italian-futurism-1498564364-9781498564366.html|title=Political Aesthetics of ISIS and Italian Futurism 1498564364, 9781498564366|website=dokumen.pub|access-date=Sep 14, 2025}}</ref>
==Economic views== In terms of economics the Islamic State supports anti-capitalism,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2015-02/islamic-state-jihadists-from-europe-essay|title="Islamic State": Starting with Words, Ending with Blood|website=DIE ZEIT|date=15 February 2015 |access-date=Sep 14, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/islamic-state-claims-to-mint-gold-coins-in-effort-to-drive-us-to-financial-ruin/|title=Islamic State Claims to Mint Gold Coins in Effort to Drive US to Financial Ruin|first=Gillian|last=Mohney|date=August 30, 2015}}</ref><ref>Khawaja, Moign; Kaunert, Christian (2025). Islamic State, Media, and Propaganda: Performances of the 'Visual Caliphate'. European Security and Justice Critiques Series. Northampton: Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1-0353-3621-0.</ref> and advocates for Zakat<ref>2015 study by the Financial Action Task Force</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/2015/12/how-isis-runs-its-economy/|title=How ISIS runs its economy|website=World Economic Forum}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=How ISIS makes (And takes) money | date=19 February 2015 | url=https://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/19/world/how-isis-makes-money }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Swanson |first=Ana |date=November 18, 2015 |title=How the Islamic State makes its money |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/18/how-isis-makes-its-money/ |access-date=2025-10-13 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US}}</ref> and Jizya.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sly |first=Liz |date=October 30, 2015 |title=They freed a Syrian town from ISIS. Now they have to govern it. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-challenges-of-governing-after-the-islamic-state/2015/10/30/8985938c-7673-11e5-a5e2-40d6b2ad18dd_story.html |access-date=2025-10-13 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> however in finance politics they also embrace neoliberal elements.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7765/9781526143211/html|title=Neoliberalism and neo-jihadism: Propaganda and finance in Al Qaeda and Islamic State|first=Imogen|last=Richards|date=Sep 29, 2020|publisher=Manchester University Press|access-date=Sep 14, 2025|via=www.degruyterbrill.com|doi=10.7765/9781526143211 |isbn=978-1-5261-4321-1 }}</ref>
==Tenets and sources==
=== Origins === The ideology of the Islamic State is based on the tenets of Al-Qaeda literature that had ascended in the Jihadist field since the 1980s. The core features of Jihadist literature during this era were outlined by the influential Egyptian Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966 C.E/ 1386 A.H), who believed that Islamic principles had become titular and condemned his society as being sunk in a state of ''Jahiliyya'' (pre-Islamic ignorance). To overcome this state, Qutb proposed the implementation of the ''Hakimiyya'' doctrine, which espoused the Sovereignty of God in all aspects of life. This was to be achieved by overthrowal of the modern-day nation-states and subsequent establishment of an Islamic order based on the society of Muhammad and his companions, through armed Jihad. Those Muslims who opposed their principles were considered renegades guilty of apostasy. Qutb drew his revolutionary ideals mainly from the works of medieval theologians Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H) and Ibn Qayyim (d. 1350 C.E/ 751 A.H); which strongly condemned the cult of saints and practices related to grave veneration. Qutb re-oriented Ibn Taymiyya's critiques against what he described as the "modern idols", i.e, the contemporary nation states. These re-invigorated doctrines would shape the Salafi Jihadist theology from the 1970s, represented by organisations like Al-Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, etc. The Islamic State regards itself as the true successor of these theological doctrines and accuses Al-Qaeda leadership under Zawahiri of being deviated. Unlike Al-Qaeda, IS was also able to implement these doctrines in its territories during its brief stint of power in parts of Iraq and Syria during 2014-2019.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Marone |first1=Francesco |title=Digital Jihad: Online Communication and Violent Extremism |last2=Fisher, Prucha |first2=Ali, Nico |publisher=Ledizioni LediPublishing |year=2019 |isbn=978-88-5526-135-7 |location=Alamanni, 11 – 20141 Milano – Italy |pages=59–65 |chapter=3: Follow the White Rabbit - Tracking IS Online and Insights into What Jihadists Share}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=124–125 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref>
According to Professor Bartosz Bolechów of the University of Warsaw, the ideology of the Islamic State was formed as a consequence of ideological radicalisation in response to the war on terror launched after 9/11. Asserting that the binary worldview of Islamic State and its ideological evolution is compatible with the conclusions of Terror Management Theory (TMT), Bolechów states:<blockquote>"Jihadi, revolutionary variant of Salafism is a modern phenomenon inspired initially by the writings of Sayyid Qutb (and then by scholars like Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and Abu Basir al-Tartusi) and born as a reaction to Islamic political fragmentation (after the fall of Ottoman Empire), colonization (by Western powers) and modernization.. If Jihadi-Salafism should be understood as a radical fringe of Salafism, the ideology of the Islamic State is so far its most extreme version. Some scholars are calling this variant Neo-Takfirism to stress the fact of its strained or even openly hostile relations with more "traditional" strains of jihadi organizations, its thinkers and leaders. This new variant is definitely an indirect byproduct of 9/11 and direct byproduct of GWOT: the chain of events started by the disruption of Al-Qaeda central in Afghanistan and then continued with an intervention in Iraq.. GWOT basically supported the narrative of the revolutionary Salafism: that counterterrorism is only a pretext used by the West in its historical quest for destroying Islam. It was a leading force and a key factor behind a further radicalization of an already radical worldview."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bolechów |first=Bartosz |year= 2022 |title=The Islamic State's Worldview as a Radical Terror Management Device |url=http://www.studiapolitologiczne.pl/The-Islamic-State-s-Worldview-nas-a-Radical-Terror-Management-Device,147954,0,2.html |journal=Studia Politologiczne |volume=63 |issue=1/2022 |pages=61–85 |doi=10.33896/SPolit.2022.63.4 |s2cid=248190680 |doi-access=free }}</ref></blockquote>
=== Sources === Egyptian Jihadist theoretician and ideologue Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir, is widely regarded as the "theologian who shaped ISIS". His works provided the most influential inspiration for modern jihadist strategies.<ref name="Winter 2016">{{cite magazine|last1=al-Saud|first1=Abdullah K.|last2=Winter|first2=Charlie|date=4 December 2016|title=Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir: The Obscure Theologian Who Shaped ISIS|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/12/isis-muhajir-syria/509399/|url-status=live|magazine=The Atlantic|location=Washington, D.C.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140424/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/12/isis-muhajir-syria/509399/|archive-date=12 June 2018|access-date=28 September 2020|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="Townsend 2018">{{cite news|last=Townsend|first=Mark|date=13 May 2018|title=The core Isis manual that twisted Islam to legitimise barbarity|work=The Guardian|location=London|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/12/isis-jihadist-manual-analysed-rebutted-by-islamic-scholar|url-status=live|access-date=5 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609090007/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/12/isis-jihadist-manual-analysed-rebutted-by-islamic-scholar|archive-date=9 June 2018}}</ref><ref name="Ajjoub 2021">{{cite book|last=Ajjoub|first=Orwa|url=https://www.cmes.lu.se/sites/cmes.lu.se/files/2021-02/orwa_ajjoub_rapport_a4_0203_interaktiv.pdf|title=The Development of the Theological and Political Aspects of Jihadi-Salafism|publisher=Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University|year=2021|isbn=978-91-7895-772-9|location=Lund|pages=1–28|access-date=6 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210042321/https://www.cmes.lu.se/sites/cmes.lu.se/files/2021-02/orwa_ajjoub_rapport_a4_0203_interaktiv.pdf|archive-date=10 February 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> Al-Muhajir's legal manual on violence, ''Fiqh al-Dima'' (''The Jurisprudence of Jihad'' or ''The Jurisprudence of Blood''),<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Winter 2016" /><ref name="Townsend 2018" /><ref name="Ajjoub 2021" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Stout|first=Chris E.|title=Terrorism, Political Violence, and Extremism: New Psychology to Understand, Face, and Defuse the Threat|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2018|isbn=978-1-4408-5192-6|location=Santa Barbara, California|pages=5–6|chapter=The Psychology of Terrorism|oclc=994829038|author-link=Chris Stout (psychologist)|orig-date=2017|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvHeDgAAQBAJ&q=jurisprudence+of+blood+ISIS&pg=PA5}}</ref> became IS's standard reference for justifying its extraordinary acts of violence.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Winter 2016" /><ref name="Townsend 2018" /><ref name="Ajjoub 2021" /> The book has been described by counter-terrorism scholar Orwa Ajjoub as rationalizing and justifying "suicide operations, the mutilation of corpses, beheading, and the killing of children and non-combatants".<ref name="Ajjoub 2021" /> His theological and legal justifications influenced IS,<ref name="Winter 2016" /><ref name="Townsend 2018" /><ref name="Ajjoub 2021" /> al-Qaeda,<ref name="Winter 2016" /> and Boko Haram,<ref name="Townsend 2018" /> as well as several other jihadi terrorist groups.<ref name="Winter 2016" />
Fawaz A. Gerges believes that IS has drawn from Salafi-jihadists' "repertoire of ideas and selectively borrowed whatever fits its unique worldview".<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19">{{cite journal |last1=Gerges |first1=Fawaz A. |title=The World According to ISIS |journal=Foreign Policy Journal |date=18 March 2016 |url=https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/03/18/the-world-according-to-isis/ |access-date=17 August 2019}}</ref> In particular, he believes IS has drawn from three works that share an advocacy of offensive jihad, opposition to any gradualism or political activity, attacking the near enemy not just the far, observing no limits in killing and brutalizing as extreme violence as this is following the way of the prophet and is the best way to bring the enemy to submission. Three works are: *''Management of Savagery'' (''Idarat at-Tawahhush''). Written under the pseudonym Abu Bakr al-Najji and published online around 2004. The most famous of the three works, it has been described by several journalists and analysts as influential to IS,<ref name="McCoy"/><ref name=Crooke-30-8-2014/><ref>{{cite web |last=Hassan |first=Hassan |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/isis-islamic-state-ideology-sharia-syria-iraq-jordan-pilot |title=Isis has reached new depths of depravity. But there is a brutal logic behind it |work=The Guardian |date=8 February 2015 |access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> and intended to provide a strategy to create a new Islamic caliphate.<ref name="nyJune14">{{cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |title=ISIS's Savage Strategy in Iraq |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/isiss-savage-strategy-in-iraq |magazine=The New Yorker |date=16 June 2014 |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> Among its important points are that earlier jihadists wasted time on preaching, neglecting killing and destruction. "We must drag all the people to battle and bring the temple down on the heads of everyone". After all, "the worst chaotic condition is by far preferable to stability under the system of apostasy",<ref>Najji, ''Management of Savagery'', 4.</ref> and even "if the whole umma [community of Muslims] perishes" during jihadi generated fighting, "they would all be martyrs".<ref>Najji, ''Management of Savagery'', p.76; quoted in ...</ref><ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/> *''An Introduction to the Jurisprudence of Jihad'' by Abu Abdullah al-Muhajjer. According to this interpretation of jihad "killing kuffar and fighting them in their Homeland is a necessity even if they do not harm Muslims". It doesn't really matter if enemy killed are combatants or non-combatants because the main reason for "killing them and confiscating their property" is that "they are not Muslims".<ref>Muhajjer, ''An Introduction to the Jurisprudence of Jihad'', p.32; quoted in ...</ref><ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/> *''The Essentials of Making Ready [for Jihad]'' by Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, (also known as Abdel-Qader Ibn Abdel-Aziz or Dr. Fadl). This work focuses on ''hakimiyya'' or rule of God, and differs somewhat from the others in encouraging attacks on the far as well as near enemy. Its author asserts that jihad against near enemy—any Muslim who rules by non-sharia law—is ''fard ayn'', an Islamic obligation for every Muslim male 15 and over. Anyone who avoids jihad in the path of God betrays God, Muhammad, and Islam.<ref>Ibn Abdel-Aziz, ''The Essentials of Making Ready'', 345</ref>
The classical references of IS mainly consist of the medieval legal literature of Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and various collections of hadiths and their exegeses. Contemporary scholarly references relied upon by IS include the 19th century treatises of Wahhabi ''Aal al-Shaykhs'', treatises of Sayyid Qutb, Juhayman al-Otaybi, as well as the popular Jihadi literature produced by the exponents of the ''Sahwa'' movement, Shu'aybi school and Al-Qaeda. Major references also consist of the legal works of various scholars influential in the Salafi tradition; such as the early 19th century Yemeni theologian Muhammad Al-Shawkani. The writings of classical theologian Ibn Taymiyya are disproportionately cited throughout IS pamphlets, propaganda videos and magazines. Throughout their works, IS ideologues refer to Ibn Taymiyya by the title "Shaykh al-Islām". As of 2019, Ibn Taymiyya has been cited more than 40,000 times out of all the 300,000 pages published by various AQ and IS Publications. However, IS strategists are highly selective in appropriating the ideas found in scholarly literature; by moulding them to align with their revolutionary propaganda and militant ideology.<ref name=BT18a>{{Cite book | first1=Ondřej | last1 = Beránek | first2=Pavel | last2 = Ťupek |title=The Temptation of Graves in Salafi Islam: Iconoclasm, Destruction and Idolatry |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4744-1757-0 |location= Edinburgh, UK |pages=178, 181–182 }}</ref><ref name=NMBS21>{{Cite book |first1=Karel | last1 = Nováček | first2=Miroslav | last2 =Melčák | first3 = Ondřej | last3 = Beránek | first4=Lenka | last4 = Starková |title=Mosul after Islamic State: The Quest for Lost Architectural Heritage | ref = NMBS21 | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-030-62635-8 |location=Cham, Switzerland |page=39 }}</ref><ref name=MFP19a>{{Cite book | ref = MFP19 | last1=Marone | first1 = Francesco |title=Digital Jihad: Online Communication and Violent Extremism | first2=Ali | last2 = Fisher | first3=Nico | last3 = Prucha |publisher=Ledizioni LediPublishing |year=2019 |isbn=978-88-5526-135-7 |location= Milan, Italy |pages=50–51, 60, 65–66 }}</ref>
Al-Shawkani's tracts condemning the building over graves, in particular, are often abbreviated, re-published and distributed via IS propaganda material and leaflets. During its occupation of Mosul, IS distributed Shawkani's treatises that advocated the "levelling" of tombs and elevated graves, asserting it as a core religious doctrine. Citing Shawkani, IS excommunicated those who visit graves for beseeching favours as polytheists and apostates. Executions of captured enemy combatants suspected of being Shiites are also justified through these writings. Despite resistance from local populace, IS engaged in a campaign of destroying the tombs of various saints throughout their three year-reign in Mosul.<ref name=BT18a/><ref>Nováček et al 2021, pp. 43–45</ref><ref name=MFP19a/>
Various scholars assert that Islamic State misappropriates classical scholarly ''fatwas'' (legal verdicts) to justify their ruthless religious interpretations that diverges from traditional Sunnism, including mainstream Salafism. IS ideologues often accuse their religious critics of being guilty of ''Taqlid'' (blind following), for disagreeing with their brutal execution methods and violent tactics like suicide bombings. IS magazines such as ''Dabiq'' and ''Dar al-Islam'' regularly publish numerous articles fervently denouncing those who fall into ''Taqlid'' as heretics since "it implies following someone other than Allah and his messenger". ''Dabiq'' magazine published an article in 2015 titled "The Evil of Division and Taqlid", which emphasized the obligation to follow Prophetic commands and condemned the practice of imitating scholarly verdicts without basis in Scriptures. An example of this literalism was manifested in the 2015 burning to death of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh which was justified by IS based on ''Qisas'' ("eye for an eye") principle in Qur'an.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lakomy |first=Miron |title=Islamic State's Online Propaganda: A Comparative Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-367-69947-5 |location= Abingdon, Oxon, UK |pages=144–145 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Olivier |title=Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-084363-2 |location=New York, United States of America |pages=60–61, 108 |chapter=3- The Jihadi Imaginary: the Islamisation of Radicalism}}</ref>
===Demands of the Caliphate=== Having declared itself to be a new Caliphate, and al-Baghdadi to be the new Caliph, IS has declared "We inform the Muslims that, with the announcement of the caliphate, it has become obligatory for all Muslims to give Bay'ah and support him", and "O Muslims in all places. Whoso is able to emigrate to the Islamic State, let him emigrate. For emigration to the Abode of Islam is obligatory".<ref name="Bunzel"/> This holds true for all other jihadi groups including Al-Qaeda which (IS believes) has lost its reason for existing independently.
Salafi Jihadists such as IS believe that only a legitimate authority can undertake the leadership of jihad, and that the first priority over other areas of combat, such as fighting non-Muslim countries, is the purification of Islamic society. For example, IS regards the (non-Salafi) Palestinian Islamist Sunni group Hamas as apostates who have no legitimate authority to lead jihad and it regards fighting Hamas as the first step before confrontation with Israel.<ref name=ISIS-NYT/><ref>{{cite web|last1=Mamouri|first1=Ali|title=Why Islamic State has no sympathy for Hamas|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/islamic-state-fighting-hamas-priority-before-israel.html|date=29 July 2014|publisher=Al-Monitor|access-date=1 August 2014}}</ref>
But IS goes further, ordering all jihadists everywhere that they obey and must pledge their loyalty to the commander of the faithful — i.e. their now deceased caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/> The Seriousness of IS about this demand for obedience is reflected in its conflict with the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, a group which declined to pledge loyalty to ISIL and opposed them. The fight has involved "beheadings and crucifixions" and killed "thousands of skilled fighters from both sides".<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/>
===Offensive Jihad===
According to Hayder al-Khoei, the central importance of the restoration of the caliphate of early Islam to IS's philosophy is symbolized by the Black Standard IS has adopted, a variant of the legendary battle flag of Muhammad displaying the Seal of Muhammad within a white circle, with the phrase above it, "There is no God but Allah".<ref name="speckhard-29-8-2014"/><ref>[https://time.com/3311665/isis-flag-iraq-syria/ What the ISIS Flag Says About the Militant Group], Time.com article by Ilene Prusher, 9 September 2014</ref>
All traditional Islamic scholars believe in Offensive Jihad, but the majority of them also say that Offensive Jihad must be performed by the Caliphate. According to jihadist preacher Anjem Choudary, "Hitherto, we were just defending ourselves," but now IS can fight to the forcible expansion into countries that are ruled by non-Muslims. Waging of war to expand the caliphate is an essential duty of the caliph, so according to its ideological supporters like Anjem Choudary, IS is not just allowed to fight offensively but forbidden not to.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/>
The work ''The Management of Savagery'' describes three stages of jihad. #In stage one ("vexation and empowerment") the "will of the enemy" would be broken by destruction of "vital economic and strategic targets such as oil facilities and the tourism infrastructure". Concentrating security forces to protect these sensitive targets will cause the state to weaken and its powers wither, bringing "savagery and chaos." Salafi-jihadists would then take advantage of this security vacuum, by launching an all-out battle on the thinly dispersed security forces.<ref>Najji, Management of Savagery, p.20</ref> #Once the state has been overthrown, the "administration or management of savagery" (''Idrarat al-Tawhush'') will follow. The "law of the jungle" will prevail and survivors will "accept any organization, regardless of whether it is made up of good or evil people,"<ref name="Neurink-2015">{{cite web |last1=Neurink |first1=Judit |title=ANALYSIS: The 'Savage' book behind ISIS violence |url=https://www.rudaw.net/english/analysis/21022015 |website=Rudaw |access-date=21 August 2019 |date=21 February 2015}}</ref> and jihadis will step in to provide organization, administering sharia law. #The final stage, "empowerment" (''Shawkat al-Tamkeen''), will establish the Islamic state, ruled by a single leader who would then unify diffuse and scattered groups and regions of "savagery" in a caliphate.<ref>Najji, Management of Savagery, p.50</ref> Despite the enormous suffering and loss of life caused by the forces of jihad, through a mixture of persuasion and coercion, they will (according to Najji) win hearts and minds and gain legitimacy and recognition for Islamic rule.<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/>
===Importance of Salafism=== Author Graeme Wood has noted the importance of the "governing precepts that were embedded in Islam by the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers" (which together with two succeeding generations of Muslims are known as the Salaf), from which IS insists it "cannot waver".
<blockquote>Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, "the Prophetic methodology," which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/></blockquote>
While other jihadis are salafist in doctrine, IS been more exacting in following early practices by "embrac[ing] slavery and crucifixion without apology," as well as a jizya tax on Christians.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> It has boasted about its enslavement of Yazidi women in its international magazine ''Dabiq''.<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/>
===Of Jihadi-Salafism=== The ideology of the Islamic State is based on Jihadi-Salafism, "a distinct ideological movement in Sunni Islam", according to Cole Bunzel of the Brookings Institution and Graeme Wood of ''The Atlantic''. According to their works, and IS itself, it unites two streams of Islamic thought that are the original Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism, though IS regards the modern Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas as traitors and apostates. "We believe that jihad in God's path is an individual obligation, from the fall of al-Andalus until the liberation of [all] Muslim lands, and [that it is an individual obligation] in the presence of a pious person or an impious person."<ref name="Bunzel"/><ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> British newspaper ''The Guardian'' defines the organisation's ideology as "generally viewed as identical to al-Qaida's or the Saudi version of Salafism– adherence to fundamental Islamic tenets."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/inside-isis-training-camps|title=The secret world of Isis training camps – ruled by sacred texts and the sword|author=Hassan Hassan|work=the Guardian|date=25 January 2015}}</ref> However, the sheer brutality and extreme tendencies of IS have alienated them from mainstream Salafi-Jihadists. Prominent Salafi-Jihadist ideologues have condemned IS and wrote treatises against them.<ref name="Al-Yaqoubi 2015 xx, 19, 26–27"/>
One of the most repeated propaganda tropes of IS is the denunciation of its Jihadist and other religious opponents as ''Murji'ites'', an ancient heterodox sect condemned as heretical by mainstream Sunnism. According to Jeffrey Bristol,<blockquote>"This is an important accusation, for ISIS believes that true Islam is one wholly without sects, even without the traditional four schools of jurisprudence, so that any creation of sectarianism renders one's Islam void."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bristol |first=Jeffrey |year=2016 |title=ISIS: The Taint of Murji'ism and the Curse of Hypocrisy |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:39157/ |journal=Mizan: Journal for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations |volume=1 |pages=129–166 |doi=10.17613/t7ev-0j45 |via=Humanities Commons}}</ref></blockquote>
=== Takfir === {{See also|Takfiri|label 1=Takfirism}} The ''Takfiri'' ideology of groups like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State has its roots in the writings of the 20th century Egyptian militant Islamist ideologue Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966 C.E), which preached against the governments and societies of the Muslim World. Qutb regarded the Muslim world as being sunk in a state of ''Jahiliyya'' (pre-Islamic ignorance) and by employing ''Takfir'' (excommunication); he demanded violent overthrowal of contemporary regimes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kadivar|first1=Jamileh|date=May 18, 2020|title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media|journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East|volume=7|issue=3|page=7|quote="The contemporary usage of takfir has its roots in Qutb's writings against the state or the society which he regarded as being in the state of jahiliyyah (ignorance). In the mid-20th century, Qutb (2014) divided Muslim societies into good and evil, and invoked the idea of takfir against those he considered evil. Through terms such as jahiliyyah and takfir, he not only considered Muslim regimes as ignorant but also demanded their overturn. He wrote against some Islamic governments and societies and considered many Muslims to be disbelievers... According to Qutb, using violence is necessary against corrupt Muslim rulers. His view on the Jahiliyyah of Muslim societies has influenced the takfiri thoughts of groups such as AQ and Daesh"| doi=10.1177/2347798920921706|doi-access=free|s2cid=219460446|url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf}}</ref> Describing the contemporary conditions of society, Qutb claimed: <blockquote>"Our whole environment, people's beliefs and ideas, habits and art, rules and laws - is ''Jahiliyyah'', even to the extent that what we consider to be Islamic culture, Islamic sources, Islamic philosophy and Islamic thought are also constructs of ''Jahiliyyah''!"<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kadivar|first1=Jamileh|date=May 18, 2020|title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media|journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East|volume=7|issue=3|page=7| doi=10.1177/2347798920921706|doi-access=free|s2cid=219460446|url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Qutb|first=Sayyid|title=Milestones: Special Edition|publisher=Maktabah Booksellers and Publications|year=2006|isbn=0-9548665-1-7|editor-last=al-Mehri|editor-first=A.B.|location=384 Stratford Rd, Sparkhill, Birmingham, B11 4AB, United Kingdom|page=34}}</ref></blockquote>Daesh's sectarianism and ''takfiri'' approach is historically rooted in Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI),<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last1=Spier |first1=Troy E. |title=Ideological Exclusion: Defining the (Dis)believer in Extremist Muslim Periodicals - Dabiq and Inspire |date=2022 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-1-009-06405-7 |pages=194–212}}</ref> founded by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in 2004. Its ideological roots are found in the writings of Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab and Sayyid Qutb.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kadivar|first1=Jamileh|date=May 18, 2020|title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media|journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East|volume=7|issue=3|pages=259–285| doi=10.1177/2347798920921706|doi-access=free|s2cid=219460446|quote="Daesh's roots, its takfiri approach and sectarian plan in Iraq can directly be traced back to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2004... while Daesh is historically rooted in AQI, its takfiri ideology's roots can be found in the Khawarij's view, and in the writings of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and Sayyid Qutb."|url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf}}</ref> The ''takfir'' (declaring self-proclaimed Muslims to be apostates, which usually also means calling for their death) of IS on large numbers of Muslims has been a point of difference between itself and other jihadis such as Al-Qaeda. IS is "committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people", according to Graeme Wood.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants" /> According to Jamileh Kadivar, IS has given a higher priority to fighting what it views as apostates than "original disbelievers" (Jews, Christians, Hindus, etc.).<ref>This is our aqidah and this is our methodology [Hazih Aqidatuna Wa Haza Manhajuna] . (2015). Al-Himmah Publications; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf }}</ref> Consequently, the majority of the "27,947 terrorist deaths" it has been responsible for as of 2020{{#tag:ref|directly or through affiliated groups, from its inception in 2014 to 2020|group=Note}} have been Muslims{{#tag:ref|according to Jamileh Kadivar based on estimates from Global Terrorism Database, 2020; Herrera, 2019; Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights & United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Office, 2014; Ibrahim, 2017; Obeidallah, 2014; 2015<ref name="Kadivar-2020"/>|group=Note}} it regards "as kafir".<ref name="Kadivar-2020">{{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf }}</ref> On the other hand, Troy E. Spier notes that the demarcation of believers and non-believers is more complex than a simple assignation of religious faith.<ref name="auto"/> Takfiri ideology is "a significant part" of IS "identity and being" (according to Kadivar), and a message emphasizing the pure Islam of IS supporters and the "otherness", unbelief and apostasy of "other Muslims" permeates its media/propaganda.<ref name="Kadivar-2020" />{{#tag:ref|"Daesh's official media" includes, "al-Hayat Media Center (including videos, Dabiq, and Rumiyah magazines), Al-Furqan, Ajnad, Al-Himmah publications, Al-Naba newsletter, Al-Bayan Radio, and Wilayat media offices".<ref name="Kadivar-2020"/>|group=Note}}
From about 2003 to 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of IS predecessor group, al‑Qaeda in Iraq, expanded "the range of behavior" that could make large number of self-proclaimed Muslims infidels (kafir) -- including "in certain cases, selling alcohol or drugs, wearing Western clothes or shaving one's beard, voting in an election—even for a Muslim candidate—and being lax about calling other people apostates".<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> However, Shi'a Muslims have been its "main target" in takfir. Al-Zarqawi wrote that "the danger from the Shi'a ... is greater, and their damage is worse and more destructive to the (Islamic) nation (Ummah) than the Americans, ... so fighting the Shiites ... will not end until the land is ... purified of them".<ref>''Ma'rakatona ma'a ar-Rafidah hatta la takun fitnah'' (Our fight against Rafidah until the end of Fitnah) . (2016, April 26). Al-Naba. 28, 3. Central Media Diwan; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf }}</ref>
IS continued the policy of takfir, on Shia and others. "Those who reject the takfir of Twelver Shiite scholars" are "disbelievers".<ref>Muqarrar Fi Al-Tawhid Li Al-Mu'askarat (Standard Text for Islamic Creed for Military Camps) (1436/2015). Al-Dawlah Al-Islamiyah Hai'ah Al-Buhuth Wa Al-Ifta; cited in {{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf }}</ref> The group states that if a Muslim who commits one of the "10 nullifiers (''nawaqid'') of Islam" established by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab,<ref name="10_nulifiers">{{cite web |last1=Addwesh |first1=Abdulaziz |title=The Ten Nullifiers of Islam |url=https://www.islambasics.com/book/the-ten-nullifiers-of-islam |website=islam basics |access-date=11 January 2021}}</ref> they become an apostate from Islam. The "third nullifier" was that: "Whoever does not hold the polytheists (mushrikeen) to be disbelievers (kuffar), or has doubts about their disbelief or considers their ways and beliefs to be correct, has committed disbelief"<ref name="Kadivar-2020"/> An "Important memorandum" by the group from 2017 stated:
<blockquote>The Islamic State has not ceased for a single day from making Takfir of the ''Mushrikin'' [polytheists], and that it treats the making of the Takfir of the ''Mushrikin'' as one of the utmost principles of the religion, which must be known before knowing the prayer and other obligations that are known of the religion by necessity<ref>Important memorandum. (2017, June). ''Rumiyah''. p.13, Al-Hayat Media Center; quoted in {{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf }}</ref></blockquote>
However the IS definition of ''mushrikeen'' was not limited to those who had multiple gods in their religion. IS included amongst the sins qualifying as one of the nullifiers "adopting democracy or fighting for the sake of patriotism, nationalism or civil state".<ref>Important statement . (Sha'aban 1435 AH/June 2014). Shari'i Committee in Wilayat al-Baraka. In Archive of Islamic State Administrative Documents (January 11, 2016, A. J. Al-Tamimi, Trans). http://www.aymennjawad.org/2016/01/archive-of-islamic-state-administrative-documents-1.</ref><ref>Majmou Rasa'il wa Moallafat Maktab Al-Buhuth wa Al-Dirasat, (Collection of the Writings of Office of Research and Studies) . (2017). Vol. 6. ''Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya: Maktab Al-Buhuth wa Al-Dirasat''.</ref> Another example of the willingness to takfir is a statement not only calling for the revival of slavery (specifically of Yazidi) but takfiring any Muslim who disagreed with that doctrine.
<blockquote>Yazidi women and children [are to be] divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations … Enslaving the families of the kuffar and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/></blockquote>
Despite their similarities in ideology, IS also takfired other Islamists and jihadi groups—the Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikhwan ul-Muslimin), Al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda.<ref name="Kadivar-2020"/> The Muslim Brotherhood in particular has been dubbed a "devastating cancer", "the brothers of Shaytan, a deviant sect, and the laboring agents of the Crusaders against Islam and its people". It claims that "To actualize the 'New World Order' project, the Crusaders (Christians) found none better than the Murtadd Brotherhood to be the role model for people".<ref>"The weakest house is that of a spider". (2016, November). (Foreword). ''Rumiyah'', 3, 2–3. Al-Hayat Media Center. quoted in {{cite journal |last1=Kadivar |first1=Jamileh |title=Exploring Takfir, Its Origins and Contemporary Use: The Case of Takfiri Approach in Daesh's Media |journal=Contemporary Review of the Middle East |date=May 18, 2020 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=259–285 |doi=10.1177/2347798920921706 |s2cid=219460446 |doi-access=free |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/65c93b66f223090b714c0ba62505e7b6290fa3c357d193a2c627d2f6ee577f9a/700780/2347798920921706.pdf }}</ref>
According to Jamileh Kadivar, an examination of IS public statements reveals conflict within the group over takfir—over whether takfir is "one of the principles of the religion," or merely a "requirement/necessity of religion", which has led to "warnings, imprisonment, and execution" of "Sharia office members, judges, and amirs"<ref>{{cite web |title=ISIS executes one of its Sharia judges |date=10 March 2015|agency= Middle East Monitor |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20150310-isis-executes-one-of-its-sharia-judges/ |access-date=10 January 2021}}</ref><ref name="Kadivar-2020"/>
===Importance of violence=== IS has been noted for what many observers have called "appalling"<ref name=WRIGHT-16-6-2014>{{cite magazine|last1=WRIGHT|first1=LAWRENCE|title=ISIS's Savage Strategy in Iraq|magazine=The New Yorker|date=June 16, 2014|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/isiss-savage-strategy-in-iraq|access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> or "horrifying" brutality,<ref name="McCoy">{{cite news |last=McCoy |first=Terrence McCoy |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/12/the-calculated-madness-of-the-islamic-states-horrifying-brutality/ |title=The calculated madness of the Islamic State's horrifying brutality |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=12 August 2014 |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> its release of videos and photographs of beheadings, shootings, caged prisoners being burnt alive or submerged gradually until drowned.<ref name=cnn-12-8-15>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Ian |last2=Hanna |first2=Jason |title=Croatian ISIS captive reportedly beheaded |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/12/middleeast/isis-croatian-hostage/ |access-date=12 August 2015 |publisher=CNN |date=12 August 2015}}</ref> Among other effects, the group's mass killings and publicizing of them led to a split between it and Al-Qaeda.<ref name=WRIGHT-16-6-2014/>
IS's violence is "not some whimsical, crazed fanaticism, but a very deliberate, considered strategy", according to some analysts,<ref name=Crooke-30-8-2014/> who often quote from the tract ''Management of Savagery''<ref name=MoS>{{cite book |last1=Abu Bakr Naji |title=The Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Umma Will Pass |date=23 May 2006 |publisher=John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University |url=https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/abu-bakr-naji-the-management-of-savagery-the-most-critical-stage-through-which-the-umma-will-pass.pdf |access-date=20 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413010243/https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/abu-bakr-naji-the-management-of-savagery-the-most-critical-stage-through-which-the-umma-will-pass.pdf |archive-date=13 April 2019 }}</ref> This work asserts that "one who previously engaged in jihad knows that it is naught but violence, crudeness, terrorism, deterrence and massacring."<ref name=NEGUS-1-4-2015>{{cite news|last1=NEGUS|first1=STEVE|title='ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,' and More|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/books/review/isis-inside-the-army-of-terror-and-more.html?_r=0|access-date=3 December 2015|agency=New York Times|date=April 1, 2015}}</ref> While "savage chaos" is unpleasant it has to be remembered that even "the most abominable of the levels of savagery" are better "than stability under the order of unbelief," i.e. any regime other than IS.<ref name=McCoy-12-8-2004>{{cite news|last1=McCoy|first1=Terrence|title=The calculated madness of the Islamic State's horrifying brutality|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/12/the-calculated-madness-of-the-islamic-states-horrifying-brutality/|access-date=2 December 2015|agency=Washington Post|date=August 12, 2014}}</ref><ref name=Atran-nybooks-11-16-15>{{cite news |last1=Atran |first1=Scott |last2=Hamid |first2=Nafees |title=Paris: The War ISIS Wants |url=http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/nov/16/paris-attacks-isis-strategy-chaos |work=The New York Review of Books |access-date=20 November 2015 |date=16 November 2015}}</ref>
One observer has described IS's publicizing of its mass executions and killing of civilians as part of "a conscious plan designed to instill among believers a sense of meaning that is sacred and sublime, while scaring the hell out of fence-sitters and enemies."<ref name=Atran-nybooks-11-16-15/> Another describes it purpose as to "break" psychologically those under its control "so as to ensure their absolute allegiance through fear and intimidation", while generating "outright hate and vengeance" by its enemies.<ref name=Reardon-6-7-15>{{cite news |last1=Reardon |first1=Martin |title=ISIL and the management of savagery |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/07/isil-management-savagery-150705060914471.html |access-date=20 November 2015 |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=6 Jul 2015}}</ref> (That this doctrine has been embraced by at least some lower level IS fighters would seem to be corroborated by German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, an opponent of Western intervention in Iraq who spent ten days embedded with IS in Mosul, and noted "something that I don't understand at all is the enthusiasm in their plan of religious cleansing, planning to kill the non-believers ... They were talking about hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it ...")<ref name=Greyvenstein>{{cite news |last1=Greyvenstein |first1=Hester Maria |title=Q&A: German journalist on surviving ISIL |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/2014/12/qa-german-journalist-surviving-isil-20141224164752725983.html |access-date=4 October 2015 |publisher=Al Jazeera |date=15 January 2015 }}</ref>
===Eschatology=== One difference between IS and other Islamist and jihadist movements, including al-Qaeda, is the group's emphasis on eschatology and apocalypticism—that is, a belief that the final Day of Judgment by God are near, and specifically, that the arrival of one known as the Mahdi is close at hand. It has been described as "a major part" of IS's "recruiting pitch."<ref name="Beauchamp-21-8-15">{{cite news |last1=Beauchamp |first1=Zack |title=ISIS's dead-serious obsession with the apocalypse, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/8/21/9183419/isis-iraq-apocalypse |access-date=17 August 2019 |agency=Vox |date=21 August 2015}}</ref> The IS caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and other leaders have depicted themselves as battling the "Antichrist" (Al-Masih ad-Dajjal) according to Fawaz A. Gerges.<ref name="Gerges-18-3-19"/>
IS believes that it will defeat the army of "Rome" at the town of Dabiq, in fulfilment of prophecy.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> Following its interpretation of the Hadith of the Twelve Successors, IS also believes that after al-Baghdadi there will be only four more legitimate caliphs.<ref name="what-isis-really-wants"/> The noted scholar of militant Islamism William McCants writes:
{{blockquote|text=References to the End Times fill Islamic State propaganda. It is a big selling point with foreign fighters, who want to travel to the lands where the final battles of the apocalypse will take place. The civil wars raging in those countries today [Iraq and Syria] lend credibility to the prophecies. The Islamic State has stoked the apocalyptic fire. [...] For Bin Laden's generation, the apocalypse wasn't a great recruiting pitch. Governments in the Middle East two decades ago were more stable, and sectarianism was more subdued. It was better to recruit by calling to arms against corruption and tyranny than against the Antichrist. Today, though, the apocalyptic recruiting pitch makes more sense. |author=William McCants |source=''The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State''<ref>{{Cite book |title=The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State |last=McCants |first=William |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-250-08090-5 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/isisapocalypsehi0000mcca/page/147 147] |url=https://archive.org/details/isisapocalypsehi0000mcca/page/147 }}</ref>}}
===Differences with Al-Qaeda=== Roots of the doctrinal divergences between Al-Qaeda and IS lie in the various theological and policy disagreements between Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; the Jordanian leader of Al-Qaeda's Iraq franchise (AQI). Bin Laden believed in Muslim unity (i.e. sectarianism was discouraged) and aimed the war of "vexing and exhausting" at the "far enemy" (United States). On the other hand, Zarqawi pivoted towards eliminating internal enemies, most notably Shia Muslims and secularists; whom he regarded as the "near enemy". IS focuses on "grievance (heavily grounded in the feelings of a displaced and impoverished rural class)" which involve a "near enemy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wehrey |first=Frederick |title=Beyond Sunni and Shia: The Roots of Sectarianism in a Changing Middle East |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-087605-0 |location=New York, USA |pages=46}}</ref> In the wake of the fall of Saddam Hussein, not only were Sunnis removed from power but the capital Baghdad and the Iraqi army were cleansed of Sunnis. This created a "sense of Sunni loss of privilege" and power; "a deep desire for revenge against "usurpers" specifically the "cosmopolitan, affluent elite" and "above all" the Shi'a and Iran.<ref name="Crooke-2014">{{cite news |last1=Crooke |first1=Alastair |title=The ISIS' 'Management of Savagery' in Iraq |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iraq-isis-alqaeda_b_5542575 |access-date=22 August 2019 |agency=HuffPost |date=30 June 2014}}</ref>
Al-Qaeda leadership criticised both Zarqawi and his successor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi over their anti-Shia outlook. Bin Laden had advocated for a joint front of Shia and Sunni Islamist groups to fight together during the Iraqi insurgency against the American occupation of Iraq. However, Zarqawi believed in igniting a sectarian war in Iraq as part of the anti-American insurgency; which eventually culminated in the Iraqi civil war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wehrey |first=Frederick |title=Beyond Sunni and Shia: The Roots of Sectarianism in a Changing Middle East |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-087605-0 |location=Madison Avenue, New York, USA |pages=46–47}}</ref> IS ideologues had adopted Wahhabist beliefs that Islam should be "cleansed" or purged of deviant groups that "defiled" the religion, and amplified them in their Global Jihadist strategy.<ref name="Crooke-2014" /> Al-Qaeda ideologues also regularly criticise IS for exaggerating the status of the medieval scholar Ibn Taymiyyah in their doctrinal and legal manuals; accusing them of disregarding the wider classical Sunni scholarship.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maries Wainscott |first=Ann |title=Bureaucratizing Islam: Morocco and the War on Terror |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-316-51049-0 |location=University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom |page=45 |chapter=2: Middle Eastern State Responses to the War on Terror}}</ref> Urging Zarqawi to refrain from harming Shia civilians and mosques; Ayman al-Zawahiri wrote: <blockquote>"such acts affect the protected blood of women, children, and non-combatant Shia public, who are protected because they are excused for their ignorance [of true religious doctrine, unlike Shia clerics]. This is the consensus of the Sunni toward the Shia public and ignorant followers."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wehrey |first=Frederick |title=Beyond Sunni and Shia: The Roots of Sectarianism in a Changing Middle East |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-087605-0 |location=Madison Avenue, New York, USA |pages=47}}</ref></blockquote>
By February 2014, Al-Qaeda had publicly severed its ties to Islamic State and condemned its brutal violence; accusing the organisation of estranging the Muslim public from the Jihadist cause.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wehrey |first=Frederick |title=Beyond Sunni and Shia: The Roots of Sectarianism in a Changing Middle East |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-087605-0 |location=Madison Avenue, New York, USA |pages=47–48}}</ref> Former British Intelligence officer and diplomat Alastair Crooke sees "two elements" to the difference between IS and Al-Qaeda: #IS believes that original historic Islamic state was formed by "fighting-scholars" and their armed followers. Although it adopted Wahhabi doctrines, IS radically departs from Wahhabi tradition by denying the home of that sect (Saudi Arabia) "any legitimacy as founders of a State, as the head of the Mosque, or as interpreter of the Qur'an." Instead, IS asserts these attributes for itself and views itself as the sole legitimate State.<ref name="Crooke-2014"/> #IS bases its tactics from the book ''The Management of Savagery'' which advocates for "No Mercy" with no room for "softness"; since softness is the "ingredient for failure." It promotes a very narrow definition of apostasy. The beheadings and other violent enactments of IS form part of a deliberate strategy to inflict fear and psychologically intimidate its opponents.<ref name="Crooke-2014"/> Numerous Al-Qaeda leaders and ideologues penned key treatises contesting the legitimacy of Caliphate claims of the Islamic State, citing precedence from classical, modern and pre-modern Islamic jurisprudents such as Ibn Taymiyya, Al-Mawardi, Ibn Khaldun, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Rashid Rida, etc. In a 10-page tract titled "''Taqrib Mafhum al-Khilafat al-Rashida''" (''Familiarising the Muslim masses with the concept of the rightly guided caliphate''), Al-Nusra Front scholar Sami al-'Uraydi asserts that people cannot be forced to pledge ''bay'ah'' (allegiance) to the Caliphate; rather it needs to be established through ''shura'' (consultation) with the qualified representatives of the Muslim populations. Although a caliphate can be established forcibly in a lexical sense, the regime of IS cannot be termed "Rightly Guided Caliphate" since it was violently created by forcibly oppressing the Muslim population and is led by "''Khawarij''".<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book |last1=Conway, Jarvis, Lehane, Macdonald |first1=Maura, Lee, Orla, Stuart |title=Terrorists' Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response |last2=J. Weimann |first2=Gunnar |publisher=IOS Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-61499-764-1 |location=Amsertdam, Netherlands |pages=139–140 |chapter=Between the Arab Revolutions and the Islamic State's Caliphate: al-Qaeda Leaders' Online Propaganda 2012–2014 |doi=10.3233/978-1-61499-765-8-129}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |last=Al-'Uraydi |first=Dr. Sami |date=9 September 2014 |title=تقريب مفهوم الخلافة الإسلامية الراشدة لعموم المسلمين |trans-title=Familiarising the Muslim masses with the concept of the Rightly Guided Islamic Caliphate |url=https://islamion.com/news/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D9%85%D9%81%D9%87%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106052733/https://islamion.com/news/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D9%85%D9%81%D9%87%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86/ |archive-date=6 November 2017 |url-status=usurped |website=islamion.com}}</ref> Citing Rashid Rida, Al-'Uraydi writes: <blockquote>"Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Rida, (may God have mercy on him) says: 'The meaning of this is that; ''seizing power by force is like eating dead meat and pork in necessity to avoid starvation, is enforced by force and is less [disastrous] than anarchy... and its implication is that it is necessary to strive to always remove it when possible, and it is not permissible to settle on its permanence''<nowiki/>' "<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto2"/></blockquote>
===Women and sex roles=== IS publishes material directed at women. Although women are not allowed to take up arms, media groups encourage them to play supportive roles within IS, such as providing first aid, cooking, nursing and sewing skills, in order to become "good wives of jihad".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-now-targeting-women-with-guides-on-how-to-be-the-ultimate-wives-of-jihad-9830562.html|title=Isis now targeting women with guides on how to be the 'ultimate wives of jihad'|date=31 October 2014|access-date=22 January 2015|location=London|work=The Independent|first=Heather|last=Saul}}</ref>
A document entitled ''Women in the Islamic State: Manifesto and Case Study'', released 23 January 2015 by the media wing of IS's all-female Al-Khansaa Brigade, (issued in Arabic and not translated by IS but by an anti-Islamist Quilliam Foundation<ref name=quilliam-women/>) emphasized the paramount importance of marriage and motherhood (as early as nine-years-old) for women. Women should live a life of "sedentariness", fulfilling their "divine duty of motherhood" at home: "Yes, we say 'stay in your houses,' ....."<ref name=quilliam-women>{{cite web|last1=Winter |first1=Charlie |title=QUILLIAM TRANSLATION AND ANALYSIS OF ISLAMIC STATE MANIFESTO ON JIHADIST BRIDES |url=http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/press/quilliam-translation-and-analysis-of-islamic-state-manifesto-on-jihadist-brides/ |publisher=QUILLIAM |access-date=23 November 2015 |date=5 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119055307/http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/press/quilliam-translation-and-analysis-of-islamic-state-manifesto-on-jihadist-brides/ |archive-date=19 January 2016 }}</ref><ref name=imsorfw>{{cite journal|last1=ABDUL-ALIM|first1=JAMAAL|title=ISIS 'Manifesto' Spells Out Role for Women|journal=The Atlantic|date=8 March 2015|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/isis-manifesto-spells-out-role-for-women/387049/|access-date=23 November 2015}}</ref> Under "exceptional circumstances," women may leave home—doctors, teachers, women studying Islam are exempt from confinement, as are women if they are needed to fight jihad and ordered to do so by religious leaders when there are not enough men around to protect the country from enemy attack.<ref name=quilliam-women/><ref name=imsorfw/>
In education, the document author envisions a system where girls complete their formal schooling by age 15. Women are encouraged to study, provided the content is not "worldly" knowledge, but religious, for example Shari'ah, (Islamic law). The proper Muslim women should not study
<blockquote>these worthless worldly sciences in the farthest mountains and the deepest valleys, ... She travels, intent upon learning Western lifestyle and sitting in the midst of another culture, to study the brain cells of crows, grains of sand and the arteries of fish!</blockquote>
If instead she studies ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence), "there is with no need for her to flit here and there to get degrees and so on, just so she can try to prove that her intelligence is greater than a man's."<ref name=imsorfw/>
The treatise decries Western feminism and the blurring of lines between the roles of each sex, which has caused Muslims to forget how to worship God properly. "Women are not presented with a true picture of man", and men have become emasculated.<ref name=quilliam-women/>
Equality for women is criticized on the grounds that <blockquote>Women gain nothing from the idea of their equality with men apart from thorns ... Under 'equality' they have to work and rest on the same days as men even though they have 'monthly complications' and pregnancies and so on, in spite of the nature of her life and responsibilities to their husband, sons and religion."<ref name=imsorfw/></blockquote>
=== Comparisons to Revolutionary Marxism === {{See also|list of communist ideologies|Islamic socialism{{!}}Islamic socialism (often progressive)|Marxism–Leninism|Bolshevism|Jewish Bolshevism{{!}}Jewish Bolshevism (antisemitic trope)|anti-communism}}
Some authors have conceptualized similarities between the ideological aspects espoused by IS and the militant revolutionary strands of Marxist doctrine. Major themes espoused by IS have been compared to various aspects of Marxist worldview such as opposition to the nation-state system, binary categorisations of human societies into oppressed and oppressor classes, advocacy of global revolution to overthrow the prevalent world system, belief in an ideologically dedicated vanguard to carry out the armed revolution, deterministic conceptualisation of history, negation of diplomatic engagement with opponents and emphasis on violent means to change the hostile world order rather than participating in internal reforms.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hasan Hama |first=Hawre |year=2021 |title=A comparison between Marxism and Islamic State's Salafi Jihadism |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2057891119888583 |journal=Asian Journal of Comparative Politics |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1177/2057891119888583 |s2cid=213512887 |url-access=subscription |via=SAGE Journals}}</ref> According to political scientist Massimo Ramaioli:<blockquote>"Al-Baghdadi was not unlike Lenin: leaders of an uncompromising vanguard, hellbent on the rejection of the incumbent historical bloc, ready to deploy violence to upend such order, zealots in their representation of the Enemy. The scientific truth adumbrated by an averred correct understanding of history granted both ISIS and the Bolsheviks brazen confidence and frightful resolve. It revealed in their ideology and attendant political praxis."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramaioli |first=Massimo |date=13 February 2023 |title=Salafism as Gramscian informed vanguardism |journal=Contemporary Islam |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=297–318 |doi=10.1007/s11562-023-00514-z |s2cid=256867289 |doi-access=free}}</ref></blockquote>
== In practice ==
=== Women === Residents report that the ISIL dress code for women was both very strict and strictly enforced.<ref name="CALLIMACHI-12-12-16">{{cite news|last1=CALLIMACHI|first1=RUKMINI|title=For Women Under ISIS, a Tyranny of Dress Code and Punishment|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/world/middleeast/islamic-state-mosul-women-dress-code-morality.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news|access-date=12 December 2016|agency=New York Times|date=12 December 2016}}</ref> Shortly after taking control of Mosul in 2014 residents reported that ISIL distributed from door-to-door a "Bill of the City," detailing its plans for governing the city, and declaring that women should wear a "wide, loose jilbab, stay in your homes and leave them only in cases of necessity."<ref name="Aqeedi-2016">{{cite book|last1=Al Aqeedi|first1=Rasha|title=Hisba in Mosul: Systematic Oppression in the Name of Virtue|date=February 2016|publisher=Program on Extremism at George Washington University|url=https://cchs.gwu.edu/sites/cchs.gwu.edu/files/downloads/AlAqeedi_Paper.pdf|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=25 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025042950/https://cchs.gwu.edu/sites/cchs.gwu.edu/files/downloads/AlAqeedi_Paper.pdf}}</ref>
The dress code was implemented gradually and completed with the requirement that every part of the female body including the eyes be covered in public. Some former female residents complained that this prevented them from such basic tasks as seeing where they were going; or when shopping seeing what they were buying and what change was being given them.<ref name="CALLIMACHI-12-12-16" />
Thousands of sets of niqab were distributed to shops in Mosul after the ISIL takeover and decrees ordered that women wear them along with gloves. ISIL billboards gave details of required apparel for women stating that outer gowns should be "thick and not reveal what is beneath" and should "not draw attention."<ref name="CALLIMACHI-12-12-16" /> Regulations on dress are enforced by Diwan al-Hisba or "morality police" who issue citations and confiscate IDs. According to the New York Times, "depending on the offense, he was forced to pay a fine, or else either he or his wife was sentenced to a whipping, recent escapees said."<ref name="CALLIMACHI-12-12-16" /> In one case a woman resident complained that she was arrested by a vigilant morality police officer who spotted her lifting her veil to let food enter her mouth while on a family picnic. She was sentenced to 21 lashes administered with "a cable that had metal spikes on the end" and had to be hospitalized afterwards.<ref name="CALLIMACHI-12-12-16" />
===Men=== The Diwan al-Hisba also enforced laws on behavior for men in Mosul, who were fined and flogged for infractions such as "incorrect beard length, for failure to pray at the sanctioned time, for possession of cigarettes and alcohol".<ref name="CALLIMACHI-12-12-16" />
==Initial reception== Following the announcement of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL's predecessor) in 2006, there was much celebration on Jihadist websites. A number of popular forums added counters that counted the number of days that had passed since the Islamic state's establishment, with a statement underneath: "[a certain number of] days have passed since the announcement of the Islamic State and the [Muslim] community's coming hope…and it will continue to persist by the will of God." However, outside of jihadists online, it was not considered by people as an official state.<ref name="Bunzel" /> Abu Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir both insisted that the Islamic State of Iraq was not simply a new name for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but was an actual state. When other Iraq-based Salafi factions like the Islamic Army in Iraq refused to recognize it as a state and give it their allegiance, Abu Umar al-Baghdadi called them "sinners".<ref name="Bunzel" />
==Criticism== U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry said in a statement that "[IS] is not Islamic", and denied it was a state, instead calling it a terrorist organization. Neither governments nor peoples recognize it as legitimate government.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/obama-isis-not-islamic_b_5843830.html | title=Obama Is Wrong That ISIS Is 'Not Islamic' | publisher=huffingtonpost | access-date=7 May 2015 | author=Crooke Alastair | date=18 September 2014}}</ref>
==See also==
* Hazimism, an offshoot from mainstream ISIS ideology
==References== ===Notes=== {{reflist|group=Note}}
===Citations=== {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book |last=Manne |first=Robert |title= The Mind of the Islamic State: ISIS and the Ideology of the Caliphate |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst |year=2017 |isbn = 978-1-63388-371-0 }}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20150505095656/http://www.foi.se/Documents/foir4058_reducerad.pdf ISIS and Hezbollah]
{{Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant}}
Category:Islamic State Category:Sunni Islam Category:State ideologies Category:Islamic eschatology Category:Totalitarian ideologies Category:Wahhabism Category:Qutbism