Introduction

2015

 

 

 

 

 

No one predicted Islamic State’s astonishing blitzkrieg in the June of 2014 that created a caliphate roughly the size of Britain in the Middle East and presented the world with its greatest security challenge of recent times.

I asked Dr Azzam Tamimi, the prominent and sometimes controversial British Palestinian scholar and activist, the question everyone wants the answer to: ‘What is Islamic State?’ He was clear: ‘ISIS is a very desperate insane response to a very deep crisis.’1

But what exactly is the crisis and why such a terrifying response? What do they want and what happens if they get it? What drives their utter relentlessness? In the immortal words of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid about the indefatigable posse pursuing them, ‘Who are those guys?’

To many people, Islamic State (IS) and its caliphate had appeared from nowhere and that is because most people had lost interest in Iraq and the seemingly never-ending tide of violence ebbing and flowing over the country. The Iraq War had not been popular and had dragged on too long. Besides there were other serious distractions, such as the Arab Spring of 2011 or the war in Ukraine, where I spent much time in early 2014 before IS launched its stunning military campaign.

IS had not come from nowhere. Its roots go back to the US-led invasion of 2003 and even further back to older conflicts in Afghanistan. When you investigate the organization’s terrible history you realize that in fact the US has been at war with IS in its various incarnations for twelve years now, which is almost four times as long as its fight against Japan and Nazi Germany. There appears no end in sight. Other dangerous extremist jihadist groups, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, have pledged allegiance to IS and by early 2015, the group managed to establish a murderous presence amid the chaos of Libya.

For me as a BBC reporter, the phenomenon of militant Islamism has clearly been one of the big stories of our times. It had taken me to New York to report on the attacks of 9/11, and to London for the suicide bombings of 7 July 2005. I was in Libya when it started to take root there and have seen it wreak death and destruction in Iraq. In early 2015, I was in Paris in the wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket.

Despite the enormous publicity, there is still so much we don’t know about IS and the violent men who control it. We have been learning more and more about life within the so-called caliphate itself. For a journalist, security considerations have made Iraq an extremely difficult place to work in. There has been a persistent kidnap risk and of course the danger of suicide and car bombings. Syria has become a virtual no-go area for the Western media. IS has brutally murdered brave journalists like Kenji Goto, James Foley and Steven Sotloff who got too close.

I wanted to investigate IS to try to understand its history, its savagery and the ruthless men who have created it. I have spoken to people in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East as well as in the UK and the US. I have interviewed a wide range of people, from experts and politicians in the West and the Middle East, to the US military strategists who tried to eliminate the group, and other important eyewitnesses. There is also a treasure trove of important documents, from the secret cables of the US embassy in Baghdad to the documents and letters discovered at the home of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by the US Navy Seals who killed him. I even got information from leaks that US intelligence believes emanated from within the leadership of Islamic State itself. All of this helps paint a harrowing picture of the rise of IS and the people and circumstances that helped it happen.

Since its inception as a small violent gang of jihadi extremists called al-Tawhid wa’l Jihad, IS has gone through no fewer than five name changes. Many people still prefer to call it ISIS; President Barack Obama decided on ISIL; to the BBC it is the ‘so-called Islamic State’ or IS. In the Middle East, it is known simply by the acronym Da’esh, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. To avoid confusion, I have simply decided to call the group whatever it was calling itself at the time or ‘the group’. All of these name changes are important because they reflect how the group saw itself at the time.

Another problem is aliases. All the leading terrorists and other jihadis had anything up to three aliases, or noms de guerre. This was done, mainly successfully, to confuse their enemies. I will try not to add to the confusion. Where possible, I will also give their real names and then stick to the noms de guerre by which they are known.

Problems also arise with language and words such as ‘Islamist’ and ‘Islamism’. Many Islamists believe in democracy and it is possible to be an Islamist extremist and not engage in violence. There are Salafis and Wahhabis who oppose IS and those who support them. Even terms such as ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ can be loaded and problematic. Again, in an attempt to be helpful, I use the word ‘Shia’ for all people and things Shia, although I appreciate that strictly speaking, ‘Shiite’ is the adjective. Otherwise, I will try to be as exact as possible.