Part 1 here.
Human rights abuse and war crime findings
In July 2014, the BBC reported the United Nations' chief investigator as stating: "Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) may be added to a list of war crimes suspects in Syria."[268] By June 2014, according to United Nations reports, ISIL had killed hundreds of prisoners of war[269] and over 1,000 civilians.[270][271][272] In August 2014, the UN accused ISIL of committing "mass atrocities" and war crimes,[273][274] including the mass killing of up to 250 Syrian Army soldiers near Tabqa Air base.[269] Other known killings of military prisoners took place in Camp Speicher, where 1,095–1,700 Iraqi soldiers were shot and "thousands" more went "missing", and the Shaer gas field, where 200 Syrian soldiers were shot.[275] Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that they were performing "widespread ethnic and religious cleansing in the areas under their control".[276]In early September 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council agreed to send a team to Iraq and Syria to investigate the abuses and killings being carried out by ISIL on "an unimaginable scale". Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad, the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged world leaders to step in to protect women and children suffering at the hands of ISIL militants, who he said were trying to create a "house of blood". He appealed to the international community to concentrate its efforts on ending the conflict in Iraq and Syria.[277]
In November 2014, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said that ISIL was committing crimes against humanity.[278][279] A report by Human Rights Watch in November 2014 accused ISIL groups in control of Derna, Libya of war crimes and human rights abuses and of terrorising residents. Human Rights Watch documented three apparent summary executions and at least ten public floggings by the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which joined ISIL in November. It also documented the beheading of three Derna residents and dozens of seemingly politically motivated assassinations of judges, public officials, members of the security forces and others. Sarah Leah Watson, Director of HRW Middle East and North Africa, said: "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing."[280]
Speaking of ISIL's methods, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has stated that the group "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey".[281]
Religious and minority group persecution
Yazidi refugees on Mount Sinjar in August 2014
ISIL compels people in the areas that it controls to live according to its interpretation of sharia law.[265][282] There have been many reports of the group's use of death threats, torture and mutilation to compel conversion to Islam,[265][282] and of clerics being killed for refusal to pledge allegiance to the so-called "Islamic State".[283] ISIL directs violence against Shia Muslims, Alawites, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans in particular.[284]
ISIL fighters are targeting Syria's minority Alawite sect.[285][286] Islamic State and affiliated jihadist groups reportedly took the lead in an offensive on Alawite villages in Latakia Governorate of Syria in August 2013.[287][288]
Amnesty International has held ISIL responsible for the ethnic cleansing of ethnic and religious minority groups in northern Iraq on a "historic scale". In a special report released on 2 September 2014, it describes how ISIL has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". Among these people are Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shia, Shabak Shia, Yazidis, Kaka'i and Sabean Mandeans, who have lived together for centuries in Nineveh province, large parts of which came under ISIL's control.[289][290]
Among the known killings of religious and minority group civilians carried out by ISIL are those in the villages and towns of Quiniyeh (70–90 Yazidis killed), Hardan (60 Yazidis killed), Sinjar (500–2,000 Yazidis killed), Ramadi Jabal (60–70 Yazidis killed), Dhola (50 Yazidis killed), Khana Sor (100 Yazidis killed), Hardan (250–300 Yazidis killed), al-Shimal (dozens of Yazidis killed), Khocho (400 Yazidis killed and 1,000 abducted), Jadala (14 Yadizis killed)[291] and Beshir (700 Shia Turkmen killed),[292] and others committed near Mosul (670 Shia inmates of the Badush prison killed),[292] and in Tal Afar prison, Iraq (200 Yazidis killed for refusing conversion).[291] The UN estimated that 5,000 Yazidis were killed by ISIL during the takeover of parts of northern Iraq in August 2014.[293] In late May 2014, 150 Kurdish boys from Kobani aged 14–16 were abducted and subjected to torture and abuse, according to Human Rights Watch.[294] In the Syrian towns of Ghraneij, Abu Haman and Kashkiyeh 700 members of the Sunni Al-Shaitat tribe were killed for attempting an uprising against ISIL control.[295][296] The UN reported that in June 2014 ISIL had killed a number of Sunni Islamic clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to it.[283]
Christians living in areas under ISIL control who want to remain in the "caliphate" face three options: converting to Islam, paying a religious levy—jizya—or death.[297][298] "We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword", ISIL said.[299] ISIL had already set similar rules for Christians in Ar-Raqqah, once one of Syria's more liberal cities.[300][301]
On 23 February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, ISIL abducted 150 Assyrian Christians from villages near Tal Tamr (Tell Tamer) in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.[302][303]
It was claimed that ISIL campaigns against Kurdish and Yezidi enclaves in Iraq and Syria were a part of organized Arabization plans. For instance, a Kurdish official in Iraqi Kurdistan claimed that the ISIL campaign in Sinjar was a case of Arabization campaign.[304]
Treatment of civilians
See also: Killing of captives by ISIL
ISIL's advance in Iraq in mid-2014 was accompanied by continuing violence in Syria. On 29 May, ISIL raided a village in Syria and at least 15 civilians were killed, including, according to Human Rights Watch, at least six children.[306] A hospital in the area confirmed that it had received 15 bodies on the same day.[307] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that on 1 June, a 102-year-old man was killed along with his whole family in a village in Hama province.[308] According to Reuters, 1,878 people were killed in Syria by ISIL during the last six months of 2014, most of them civilians.[309]
In Mosul, ISIL has implemented a sharia school curriculum which bans the teaching of art, music, national history, literature and Christianity. Although Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has never been taught in Iraqi schools, the subject has been banned from the school curriculum. Patriotic songs have been declared blasphemous, and orders have been given to remove certain pictures from school textbooks.[310][311][312][313] Iraqi parents have largely boycotted schools in which the new curriculum has been introduced.[314]
After capturing cities in Iraq, ISIL issued guidelines on how to wear clothes and veils. ISIL warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or face severe punishment.[315] A cleric told Reuters in Mosul that ISIL gunmen had ordered him to read out the warning in his mosque when worshippers gathered. ISIL ordered the faces of both male and female mannequins to be covered, in an order which also banned the use of naked mannequins.[316] In Ar-Raqqah the group uses its two battalions of female fighters in the city to enforce compliance by women with its strict laws on individual conduct.[317]
ISIL released 16 notes labelled "Contract of the City", a set of rules aimed at civilians in Nineveh. One rule stipulated that women should stay at home and not go outside unless necessary. Another rule said that stealing would be punished by amputation.[234][318] In addition to the Muslim custom of banning the sale and use of alcohol, ISIL has banned the sale and use of cigarettes and hookah pipes. It has also banned "music and songs in cars, at parties, in shops and in public, as well as photographs of people in shop windows".[319]
According to The Economist, Saudi practices also 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 of Christian churches and non-Sunni mosques or their conversion to other uses.[178]
ISIL carried out executions on both men and women who were accused of various acts and found guilty of crimes against Islam such as homosexuality, adultery, watching pornography, usage and possession of contraband, rape, blasphemy, witchcraft,[320] renouncing Islam and murder. Before the accused are executed their charges are read toward them and the spectators. Executions take various forms, including stoning to death, crucifixions, beheadings, burning people alive, and throwing people from tall buildings.[321][322][323][324]
Child soldiers
See also: Military use of children
Sexual violence and slavery
Main articles: Sexual violence in the Iraqi insurgency and Slavery in 21st century Islamism
See also: Islamic views on slavery, Ma malakat aymanukum, Raptio and Wartime sexual violence
NOTE of our weblog: See also: Traditionalist View on Sex Slavery in Islam
Haleh Esfandiari from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has highlighted the abuse of local women by ISIL militants after they have captured an area. "They usually take the older women to a makeshift slave market and try to sell them. The younger girls ... are raped or married off to fighters", she said, adding, "It's based on temporary marriages, and once these fighters have had sex with these young girls, they just pass them on to other fighters."[336] Speaking of Yazidi women captured by ISIL, Nazand Begikhani said, "These women have been treated like cattle... They have been subjected to physical and sexual violence, including systematic rape and sex slavery. They've been exposed in markets in Mosul and in Raqqa, Syria, carrying price tags."[337] This evidence contradicts a report from Vice News documenting the lives of citizens within Ar-Raqqah. Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, a 22-year-old resident, and member of the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS), dismissed the notion of Yazidi girls brought as sex slaves to Ar-Raqqah as propaganda.[338] However, in February 2015, RSS reported on the subjugation of women, including the presence of sex slaves within the city of Ar-Raqqah.[339]
A United Nations report issued on 2 October 2014, based on 500 interviews with witnesses, said that ISIL took 450–500 women and girls to Iraq's Nineveh region in August, where "150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIL fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves".[328] In mid-October, the UN confirmed that 5,000–7,000 Yazidi women and children had been abducted by ISIL and sold into slavery.[340][341] In November 2014 The New York Times reported on the accounts given by five who escaped ISIL of their captivity and abuse.[342] In December 2014, the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights announced that ISIL had killed over 150 women and girls in Fallujah who refused to participate in sexual jihad.[343][344] Non-Muslim women have reportedly been married off to fighters against their will. ISIL claims the women provide the new converts and children necessary to spread ISIL's control.[345] Shortly after the death of US hostage Kayla Mueller was confirmed on 10 February 2015,[346][347][348][349] several media outlets reported that the US intelligence community believed she may have been given as a wife to an ISIL fighter.[350][351][352] Yazidi girls in Iraq allegedly raped by ISIL fighters have committed suicide by jumping to their death from Mount Sinjar, as described in a witness statement.[353]
In its digital magazine Dabiq, ISIL explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.[354][355][356] According to The Wall Street Journal, ISIL appeals to apocalyptic beliefs and claims "justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world".[357] ISIL appeals to the Hadith and Qur'an when claiming the right to enslave and rape captive non-Muslim women.[354][358][359] According to Dabiq, "enslaving the families of the kuffar and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Sharia's that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur'an and the narration of the Prophet ... and thereby apostatizing from Islam." Captured Yazidi women and children are divided among the fighters who captured them, with one fifth taken as a tax.[359][360] ISIL has received widespread criticism from Muslim scholars and others in the Muslim world for using part of the Qur'an to derive a ruling in isolation, rather than considering the entire Qur'an and Hadith.[354][358][359] According to Mona Siddiqui, ISIL's "narrative may well be wrapped up in the familiar language of jihad and 'fighting in the cause of Allah', but it amounts to little more than destruction of anything and anyone who doesn't agree with them"; she describes ISIL as reflecting a "lethal mix of violence and sexual power" and a "deeply flawed view of manhood".[345] Dabiq describes "this large-scale enslavement" of non-Muslims as "probably the first since the abandonment of Shariah law".[359][360]
In late 2014, ISIL released a pamphlet that focused on the treatment of female slaves.[361][362] It claims that the Quran allows fighters to have sex with captives, including adolescent girls, and to beat slaves as discipline. The pamphlet's guidelines also allow fighters to trade slaves, including for sex, as long as they have not been impregnated by their owner.[361][362][363] Charlie Winter, a researcher at the counter-extremist think tank Quilliam, described the pamphlet as "abhorrent".[363][364] In response to this document Abbas Barzegar, a religion professor at Georgia State University, said Muslims around the world find ISIL's "alien interpretation of Islam grotesque and abhorrent".[365] Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world have rejected the validity of these claims, claiming that the reintroduction of slavery is un-Islamic, that they are required to protect "People of the Scripture" including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Yazidis, and that ISIL's fatwas are invalid due to their lack of religious authority and the fatwas' inconsistency with Islam.[366][367]
The Independent reported in 2015 that the usage of Yazidi sex slaves was creating friction among fighters within ISIL. Sajad Jiyad, a Research Fellow and Associate Member at the Iraqi Institute for Economic Reform, told The Independent that many ISIL supporters and fighters had been in denial about the trafficking of kidnapped Yazidi women until a Dabiq article justifying the practice was published. According to The Independent, the practice is still continuing to polarize members among the ranks of the extremist group.[368][369]
Attacks on members of the press
The Committee to Protect Journalists states: "Without a free press, few other human rights are attainable."[370] ISIL has tortured and murdered local journalists,[371][372] creating what Reporters Without Borders calls "news blackholes" in areas controlled by ISIL. ISIL fighters have reportedly been given written directions to kill or capture journalists.[373]
In December 2013, two suicide bombers stormed the headquarters of TV station Salaheddin and killed five journalists, after accusing the station of "distorting the image of Iraq's Sunni community". Reporters Without Borders reported that on 7 September 2014, ISIL seized and on 11 October publicly beheaded Raad al-Azzawi, a TV Salaheddin cameraman from the village of Samra, east of Tikrit.[374] As of October 2014, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, ISIL is holding nine journalists and has nine others under close observation in Mosul and Salahuddin province.[373]
British journalist John Cantlie held hostage by ISIL
During 2013 and part of 2014, an ISIL unit nicknamed the Beatles acquired and held 12 Western journalists hostage, along with aid workers and other foreign hostages, totalling 23 or 24 known hostages. A Polish journalist Marcin Suder was captured in July 2013 but escaped four months later.[375] The unit executed American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and released beheading videos. Eight of the other journalists were released for ransom: Danish journalist Daniel Rye Ottosen, French journalists Didier François, Edouard Elias, Nicolas Hénin, and Pierre Torres, and Spanish journalists Marc Marginedas, Javier Espinosa, and Ricardo García Vilanova. The unit continues to hold hostage British journalist John Cantlie and a female aid worker.[376]
Cyber-security group the Citizen Lab released a report finding a possible link between ISIL and a digital attack on the Syrian citizen media group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS). Supporters of the media group received an emailed link to an image of supposed airstrikes, but clicking on the link introduced malware to the user's computer that sends details of the user's IP address and system each time it restarts. That information has been enough to allow ISIL to locate RSS supporters. "The group has been targeted for kidnappings, house raids, and at least one alleged targeted killing. At the time of that writing, ISIL was allegedly holding several citizen journalists in Raqqa", according to the Citizen Lab report.[377]
On 8 January 2015, ISIL members in Libya claimed to have executed Tunisian journalists Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari who disappeared in September 2014.[378] Also in January 2015, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto Jogo was kidnapped and beheaded, after a demand for a $200 million ransom payment was not met.[379]
Beheadings and mass executions
Main article: ISIL beheading incidents
See also: Beheading video and Beheading in Islamism
An unknown number of Syrians and Iraqis, several Lebanese soldiers, at least ten Kurds, two American journalists, one American and two British aid workers, and three Libyans have been beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[citation needed] ISIL uses beheadings to intimidate local populations and has released a series of propaganda videos aimed at Western countries.[380] They also engage in public and mass executions of Syrian and Iraqi soldiers and civilians,[286] sometimes forcing prisoners to dig their own graves before shooting lines of prisoners and pushing them in.[381][382] ISIL was reported to have beheaded about 100 foreign fighters as deserters who tried to leave Raqqa.[383]
Use of chemical weapons
On October 24, 2014 it was reported that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant had used chlorine gas in the town of Duluiyah, Iraq.[384]
Laboratory analysis of clothing and soil samples confirmed the use of chlorine gas against Kurdish Peshmerga Forces in a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack on January 23, 2015 at the Highway 47 Kiske Junction near Mosul.[385]
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that ISIS militants used poison gas in an attack on Rajm al-Tfihi, a Kurdish village south of Tal Brak, Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria, on 28 June 2015.[386] The report indicated that at least 12 YPG fighters suffered vomiting, headaches, muscle pain, suffocation, and eye-burns and were hospitalized; they all survived. The rights group indicated that it had obtained testimonies by physicians and laboratory data.[386]
Destruction of cultural and religious heritage
Main article: Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
In July 2014, ISIL demolished the mosque dedicated to Jonah in Mosul
To finance its activities, ISIL is stealing artefacts from Syria[389] and Iraq and sending them to Europe to be sold. It is estimated that ISIL raises US$200 million a year from cultural looting. UNESCO has asked for United Nations Security Council controls on the sale of antiquities, similar to those imposed after the 2003 Iraq War. UNESCO is working with Interpol, national customs authorities, museums, and major auction houses in attempts to prevent looted items from being sold.[388] ISIL occupied Mosul Museum, the second most important museum in Iraq, as it was about to reopen after years of rebuilding following the Iraq War, saying that the statues were against Islam and threatening to destroy the museum's contents.[390][391]
ISIL considers worshipping at graves tantamount to idolatry, and seeks to purify the community of unbelievers. It has used bulldozers to crush buildings and archaeological sites.[391] Bernard Haykel has described al-Baghdadi's creed as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism", saying, "For Al Qaeda, violence is a means to an ends; for ISIS, it is an end in itself".[177] The destruction by ISIL in July 2014 of the tomb and shrine of the prophet Yunus—Jonah in Christianity—the 13th-century mosque of Imam Yahya Abu al-Qassimin, the 14th-century shrine of prophet Jerjis—St George to Christians—and the attempted destruction of the Hadba minaret at the 12th-century Great Mosque of Al-Nuri have been described as "an unchecked outburst of extreme Wahhabism".[392] "There were explosions that destroyed buildings dating back to the Assyrian era", said National Museum of Iraq director Qais Rashid, referring to the destruction of the shrine of Yunus. He cited another case where "Daesh (ISIL) gathered over 1,500 manuscripts from convents and other holy places and burnt all of them in the middle of the city square".[393] In March 2015, ISIL reportedly bulldozed the 13th-century BC Assyrian city of Nimrud, believing its sculptures to be idolatrous. UNESCO head, Irina Bokova, deemed this to be a war crime.[394]
There is also the fear that warfare waged on any side will harm cultural heritage. "The worst thing about wars is that they do not distinguish between the past and the future", Mosul calligrapher and conservationist Abdallah Ismail told a local correspondent for the German-funded publication Niqash.org. He suggested that ISIL was "taking the pulse" of the local population to see how it would react to its appetite for destruction. Philippe Lalliot, France's ambassador to UNESCO gave this perspective: "When people die in their tens of thousands, must we be concerned about cultural cleansing? Yes, definitely yes ... It's because culture is a powerful incentive for dialogue that the most extreme and the most fanatical groups strive to annihilate it."[393] According to the London Charter and several Hague Conventions, the deliberate destruction of historical sites and places of worship, unless such destruction is a necessity during war, is a war crime.[395]
Criticism
Islamic criticism
ISIL has received severe criticism from other Muslims, especially religious scholars and theologians. In late August 2014, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al ash-Sheikh, condemned the Islamic State and al-Qaeda saying, "Extremist and militant ideas and terrorism which spread decay on Earth, destroying human civilisation, are not in any way part of Islam, but are enemy number one of Islam, and Muslims are their first victims".[396] In late September 2014, 126 Sunni imams and Islamic scholars—primarily Sufi[397]—from around the Muslim world signed an open letter to the Islamic State's leader al-Baghdadi, explicitly rejecting and refuting his group's interpretations of Islamic scriptures, the Qur'an and hadith, used by it to justify its actions.[398][399] "[You] have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder ... this is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world", the letter states.[400] It rebukes the Islamic State for its killing of prisoners, describing the killings as "heinous war crimes" and its persecution of the Yazidis of Iraq as "abominable". Referring to the "self-described 'Islamic State'", the letter censures the group for carrying out killings and acts of brutality under the guise of jihad—holy struggle—saying that its "sacrifice" without legitimate cause, goals and intention "is not jihad at all, but rather, warmongering and criminality".[400][401] It also accuses the group of instigating fitna—sedition—by instituting slavery under its rule in contravention of the anti-slavery consensus of the Islamic scholarly community.[400] Other scholars have described the group as not Sunnis, but Khawarij.[402]
Kurdish demonstration against ISIL in Vienna, Austria, 10 October 2014
According to The New York Times, "All of the most influential jihadist theorists are criticizing the Islamic State as deviant, calling its self-proclaimed caliphate null and void" and have denounced it for its beheading of journalists and aid workers.[177] ISIL is widely denounced by a broad range of Islamic clerics, including al-Qaeda-oriented and Saudi clerics.[7][177]
Sunni critics, including Salafi and jihadist muftis such as Adnan al-Aroor and Abu Basir al-Tartusi, say that ISIL 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.[403][404] Other critics of ISIL's brand of Sunni Islam include Salafists who previously publicly supported jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda, for example the Saudi government official Saleh Al-Fawzan, known for his extremist views, who claims that ISIL is a creation of "Zionists, Crusaders and Safavids", and the Jordanian-Palestinian writer Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, the former spiritual mentor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was released from prison in Jordan in June 2014 and accused ISIL of driving a wedge between Muslims.[404]
The group's declaration of a caliphate has been criticised and its legitimacy disputed by Middle Eastern governments, other jihadist groups,[405] and Sunni Muslim theologians and historians. Qatar-based TV broadcaster and theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated: "[The] declaration issued by the Islamic State is void under sharia and has dangerous consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria", adding that the title of caliph can "only be given by the entire Muslim nation", not by a single group.[406] The group's execution of Muslims for breach of traditional sharia law while violating it itself (encouraging women to emigrate to its territory, traveling without a Wali—male guardian—and in violation of his wishes) has been criticized;[407] as has its love of archaic imagery (horsemen and swords) while engaging in bid‘ah (religious innovation) in establishing female religious police (known as al-Khansa' Brigades).[408]
Two days after the beheading of Hervé Gourdel, hundreds of Muslims gathered in the Grand Mosque of Paris to show solidarity against the beheading. The protest was led by the leader of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, Dalil Boubakeur, and was joined by thousands of other Muslims around the country under the slogan "Not in my name".[409][410] French president François Hollande said Gourdel's beheading was "cowardly" and "cruel", and confirmed that airstrikes would continue against ISIL in Iraq. Hollande also called for three days of national mourning, with flags flown at half-mast throughout the country and said that security would be increased throughout Paris.[409]
The Islamic Front criticized ISIL, saying: "They killed the people of Islam and leave the idol worshippers." and "They use the verses talking about the disbelievers and implement it on the Muslims."[411]
International criticism
The group has attracted widespread criticism internationally for its extremism, from governments and international bodies such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. On 24 September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated: "As Muslim leaders around the world have said, groups like ISIL – or Da’ish – have nothing to do with Islam, and they certainly do not represent a state. They should more fittingly be called the 'Un-Islamic Non-State'."[412] The group was described as a cult in a Huffington Post column by notable cult authority Steven Hassan.[413]
Criticism of the name "Islamic State" and "caliphate" declaration
The group's declaration of a new caliphate in June 2014 and adoption of the name "Islamic State" have been criticised and ridiculed by Muslim scholars and rival Islamists both inside and outside the territory it controls.[68][69][70][414] In a speech in September 2014, President Obama said that ISIL is not "Islamic" on the basis that no religion condones the killing of innocents and that no government recognises the group as a state,[74] while many object to using the name "Islamic State" owing to the far-reaching religious and political claims to authority which that name implies. The United Nations Security Council, the United States, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Russia, the United Kingdom[71][72][73][415][416][417][418] and other countries generally call the group "ISIL", while much of the Arab world uses the Arabic acronym "Dāʻish". France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said "This is a terrorist group and not a state. I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. The Arabs call it 'Daesh' and I will be calling them the 'Daesh cutthroats.'"[419] Retired general John Allen, the U.S. envoy appointed to co-ordinate the coalition, U.S. military Lieutenant General James Terry, head of operations against the group, and Secretary of State John Kerry had all shifted toward use of the term DAESH by December 2014.[420]
Battle of Kobani
In mid-October 2014, representatives of the Islamic Society of Britain, the Association of British Muslims and the UK's Association of Muslim Lawyers proposed that "'Un-Islamic State' (UIS) could be an accurate and fair alternative name to describe this group and its agenda", further stating, "We need to work together and make sure that these fanatics don't get the propaganda that they feed off."[425][426] The "Islamic State" is mocked on social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube, with the use of hashtags, mock recruiting ads, fake news articles and YouTube videos.[427] One parody, by a Palestinian TV satire show, portrays ISIL as "buffoon-like hypocrites", and has had more than half a million views on YouTube.[427][428]
Views of ISIL as un-Islamic
Mehdi Hasan, a political journalist in the UK, said in the New Statesman, "Whether Sunni or Shia, Salafi or Sufi, conservative or liberal, Muslims – and Muslim leaders – have almost unanimously condemned and denounced ISIL not merely as un-Islamic but actively anti-Islamic."[429]
Views of ISIL as Islamic
The British historian Tom Holland, writing for the New Statesman said, "Islamic State, in its conceit that it has trampled down the weeds and briars of tradition and penetrated to the truth of God’s dictates, is recognisably Salafist. When Islamic State fighters smash the statues of pagan gods, they are following the example of the Prophet; when they proclaim themselves the shock troops of a would-be global empire, they are following the example of the warriors of the original caliphate; when they execute enemy combatants, and impose discriminatory taxes on Christians, and take the women of defeated opponents as slaves, they are doing nothing that the first Muslims did not glory in. Such behaviour is certainly not synonymous with Islam; but if not Islamic, then it is hard to know what else it is."[430]
Hassan Hassan, an analyst at the Delma Institute, wrote in The Guardian that because the Islamic State "bases its teachings on religious texts that mainstream Muslim clerics do not want to deal with head on, new recruits leave the camp feeling that they have stumbled on the true message of Islam".[431]
In mid-February 2015, Graeme Wood, a lecturer in political science at Yale University, said in The Atlantic, "Muslims who call the Islamic State un-Islamic are typically, as the Princeton scholar Bernard Haykel, the leading expert on the group’s theology, told me, 'embarrassed and politically correct, with a cotton-candy view of their own religion' that neglects 'what their religion has historically and legally required.' Many denials of the Islamic State’s religious nature, he said, are rooted in an 'interfaith-Christian-nonsense tradition.'"[432] Wood further states, "The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. 'Very' Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam."[432]
In the media
By 2014, ISIL was increasingly being viewed as a militia rather than a terrorist group.[433] As major Iraqi cities fell to ISIL in June 2014, Jessica Lewis, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer at the Institute for the Study of War, described ISIL as "not a terrorism problem anymore", but rather "an army on the move in Iraq and Syria, and they are taking terrain. They have shadow governments in and around Baghdad, and they have an aspirational goal to govern. I don't know whether they want to control Baghdad, or if they want to destroy the functions of the Iraqi state, but either way the outcome will be disastrous for Iraq." Lewis has called ISIL "an advanced military leadership". She said, "They have incredible command and control and they have a sophisticated reporting mechanism from the field that can relay tactics and directives up and down the line. They are well-financed, and they have big sources of manpower, not just the foreign fighters, but also prisoner escapees."[433]While officials[which?] fear that ISIL may inspire attacks in the United States from sympathisers or those returning after joining ISIL, U.S. intelligence agencies have found no specific plots or any immediate threat. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel saw an "imminent threat to every interest we have", but former top counter-terrorism adviser Daniel Benjamin has derided such alarmist talk as a "farce" that panics the public.[434]
Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband concluded that the 2003 invasion of Iraq caused the creation of ISIL.[435]
Some news commentators, such as international newspaper columnist Gwynne Dyer,[436] and samples of American public opinion, such as surveys by NPR,[437] have advocated a strong but measured response to ISIL's recent provocative acts. Writing for The Guardian, Pankaj Mishra rejects that the group is a resurgence of medieval Islam and rather expresses that, "In actuality, Isis is the canniest of all traders in the flourishing international economy of disaffection: the most resourceful among all those who offer the security of collective identity to isolated and fearful individuals. It promises, along with others who retail racial, national and religious supremacy, to release the anxiety and frustrations of the private life into the violence of the global."[438]
Allegations of Turkish support
Further information: Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War § Related criticism of Turkey
Turkey has long been accused by experts, Syrian Kurds, and even U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden of supporting or colluding with ISIL.[439][440][441] According to journalist Patrick Cockburn, there is "strong evidence for a degree of collaboration" between the Turkish intelligence services and ISIL, although the "exact nature of the relationship ... remains cloudy".[442] David L. Phillips of Columbia University's
Institute for the Study of Human Rights, who compiled a list of
allegations and claims accusing Turkey of assisting ISIL, writes that
these allegations "range from military cooperation and weapons transfers
to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of
medical services".[443] Several ISIL fighters and commanders have claimed that Turkey supports ISIL.[444][445][446] Within Turkey itself, ISIL is believed to have caused increasing political polarisation between secularists and Islamists.[447]In July 2015, a raid by US special forces on a compound housing the Islamic State's "chief financial officer", Abu Sayyaf, produced evidence that Turkish officials directly dealt with ranking ISIS members. According to a senior Western official, documents and flash drives seized during the Sayyaf raid revealed links "so clear" and "undeniable" between Turkey and ISIS "that they could end up having profound policy implications for the relationship between us and Ankara".[439]
Turkey has been further criticised for allowing individuals from outside the region to enter its territory and join ISIL in Syria.[448][449] With many Islamist fighters passing through Turkey to fight in Syria, Turkey has been accused of becoming a transit country for such fighters and has been labelled the "Gateway to Jihad".[450] Turkish border patrol officers are reported to have deliberately overlooked those entering Syria, upon payment of a small bribe.[450] A report by Sky News exposed documents showing that passports of foreign Islamists wanting to join ISIL by crossing into Syria had been stamped by the Turkish government.[451] An ISIL commander stated that "most of the fighters who joined us in the beginning of the war came via Turkey, and so did our equipment and supplies",[446][452] adding that ISIL fighters received treatment in Turkish hospitals.[446]
Also, authorities in Turkey have confirmed social media reports that an injured Islamic State commander is being treated in a Denizli hospital, saying the militant has every right to receive medical care as he is a Turkish citizen.[453]
Allegations of Qatari support
The State of Qatar has long been accused of acting as a conduit for the flow of funds to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. While there is no proof that the Qatari government is behind the movement of funds from the LNG-rich nation to ISIL, it has been criticized for not doing enough to stem the flow of financing. Private donors within Qatar, sympathetic to the aims of radical groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL, are believed to be channeling their resources to support these organisations.[454][455] According to the U.S. Treasury Department, a number of terrorist financiers have been operating in Qatar. Qatari citizen Abd al Rahman al Nuaymi has served as an interlocutor between Qatari donors and leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Nuaymi reportedly oversaw the transfer of US$2 million per month to AQI over a period of time. Nuaymi is also one of several of Qatar-based al-Qaeda financiers sanctioned by the U.S.Treasury in recent years. According to some reports, U.S. officials believe that the largest portion of private donations supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked groups now comes from Qatar rather than Saudi Arabia.[456]
In August 2014, a German minister Gerd Müller accused Qatar of having links to ISIL, stating "You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar". Qatari foreign minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah reiterated this stance when he stated: "Qatar does not support extremist groups, including [ISIL], in any way. We are repelled by their views, their violent methods and their ambitions."[457][458][459][460]
Allegations of Saudi Arabian support
Although Saudi Arabia's government rejected the claims,[461] Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki accused Saudi Arabia of funding ISIL.[462] Some media outlets, such as NBC, the BBC and The New York Times, and the U.S.-based think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy have written about individual Saudi donations to the group and the Saudi state's decade-long sponsorship of Wahhabism around the world, but have concluded that there is no evidence of direct Saudi state support for ISIL.[463][464]
Allegations of Syrian support
Further information: Bashar al-Assad § Al-Qaeda and ISIL
On 1 June 2015, the United States stated that the Syrian government was "making air-strikes in support" of an ISIL advance on Syrian opposition positions north of Aleppo.[477] The president of the Syrian National Coalition Khaled Koja accused Assad of acting "as an air force for [ISIL]",[478] with the Defense Minister of the SNC Salim Idris stating that approximately 180 Syrian government officers were serving in ISIL and coordinating the group's attacks with the Syrian Arab Army.[479]
On 28 June 2015, a source close to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization claimed an agreement was made between the Assad regime and ISIL to destroy the FSA in the country's north, continue oil sales, assassinate Zahran Alloush and surrender Tadmur and Sukhna. The sources said that a group of commanders of both sides held a meeting at a gas production plant in Hasaka's al-Shaddadi area on 28 May 2015, not to stop fighting each other, but to focus on destroying a common enemy - the Syrian rebel forces, especially the FSA.[480] Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has blamed the rise of ISIL on the international communities inaction in regards to the Assad regime, which left a vacuum of power in which ISIL was able to grow.[481]
ISIL has repeatedly massacred Alawite civilians and executed captured Syrian Alawite soldiers,[285][287][482] with most Alawites supporting President Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite.[286]
Allegations of United States support
Rand Paul, junior U.S. Senator from Kentucky, has accused the U.S. government of indirectly supporting ISIL in the Syrian Civil War, by arming their allies and fighting their enemies in that country.[483][484] A Syrian rebel spokesmen rejected his statements, saying, “The Free Syrian Army has been fighting ISIS since January and continues to do so at great cost and risk. Thousands of Syrian freedom fighters have died fighting this terrorist threat”.[485]
Abu Yusaf, an ISIL commander, said in August 2014 that Free Syrian Army members who had been trained by U.S., Turkish and Arab military officers had subsequently joined ISIL.[486] In September 2014, some US-backed Syrian rebels and ISIL reportedly signed a "non-aggression" agreement.[487] That report was denied by the Islamic Front, the Syria Revolutionaries Front and other rebel groups, and the fighting between those groups and ISIL continued.[485]
Following the Fall of Ramadi, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, questioned: "How is it possible for the US troops to be present in Ramadi under the pretext of supporting Iraqi nation and yet do nothing to stop the killings there? Can this fact mean anything other than their involvement in the conspiracy?"[488]
Conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theorists in the Arab world have advanced rumours that the U.S. is secretly behind the existence and emboldening of ISIL, as part of an attempt to further destabilise the Middle East. After such rumours became widespread, the U.S. embassy in Lebanon issued an official statement denying the allegations, calling them a complete fabrication.[489] Others[which?] are convinced that ISIL leader al-Baghdadi is an Israeli Mossad agent and actor called Simon Elliot. The rumours claim that NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal this connection. Snowden's lawyer has called the story "a hoax."[490]
According to The New York Times, many Iranians believe that an alliance of the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia is directly responsible for the creation of ISIL. The newspaper said that "the claim that ISIS is a creation of the Obama administration has gained wide traction" in Iran, where many normally skeptical Iranians reason that "creating a terrorist organization opposed to Iranian interests is the obvious thing for a superpower to do", though the paper cited no polling data.[491]
Countries and groups at war with ISIL
ISIL's expanding claims to territory have brought it into armed conflict with many governments, militias and other armed groups. International rejection of ISIL as a terrorist entity and rejection of its claim to even exist have placed it in conflict with countries around the world.
Opposition within Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other nations
s[528]
American-led Coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Airstrikes in Syria by 24 September 2014
- Supporting military operations, capacity building, and training;
- Stopping the flow of foreign terrorist fighters;
- Cutting off ISIL/Daesh's access to financing and funding;
- Addressing associated humanitarian relief and crises; and
- Exposing ISIL/Daesh's true nature (ideological delegitimisation).
The following multi-national organisations are part of the Counter-ISIL Coalition:[530]
European Union – declared to be part, most members are participating;[530]
NATO – all 28 members are taking part;
Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf or GCC – all six current members and the two pending members, Jordan and Morocco, are taking part.| Military operations in or over Iraq and/or Syria airstrikes, air support, and ground forces performing training |
Supplying military equipment to opposition forces within Iraq and/or Syria in co-operation with EU/NATO/partners |
Humanitarian and other contributions to identified coalition objectives |
|---|---|---|
NATO members:
CCASG members:
Note: Listed countries in this box may also be supplying military and humanitarian aid, and contributing to group objectives in other ways. |
NATO members: (also EU members except Albania)
European Union members (not in NATO)
|
NATO members: (who are also EU members, except Iceland)
European Union members (not in NATO)
CCASG members:Other |
Other state opponents
Iran[557][558] – ground troops, training and air power (see Iranian intervention in Iraq)
Russia[559][560] – arms supplier to Iraqi and Syrian governments. In June 2014, the Iraqi army received Russian Sukhoi Su-25 and Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft to combat the Islamic State.[561] security operations within state borders in 2015 [562][563]
Azerbaijan[564][565] – security operations within state borders
Pakistan – Military deployment over Saudi Arabia-Iraq border. Arresting ISIL figures in Pakistan.[566][567][568]Other non-state opponents
Arab League—coordinating member response[569]
al-Qaeda[570]
al-Nusra Front[507]—with localised truces and co-operation at times
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula[149]- al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb[571]
Taliban[572]
Hamas[573]
Kurdistan Workers' Party of Turkey—ground troops in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Syrian Kurdistan[574]
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan—ground troops in Iraqi Kurdistan[574]
Houthis—Shia faction in Yemen, fighting for control of the country[521]Al-Qaeda
Al-Nusra Front is a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria. Al-Nusra launched many attacks and bombings, mostly against targets affiliated with or supportive of the Syrian government.[575] There were media reports that many of al-Nusra's foreign fighters had left to join al-Baghdadi's ISIL.[576]
In February 2014, after continued tensions, al-Qaeda publicly disavowed any relations with ISIL,[577] but ISIL and al-Nusra Front are still able to occasionally cooperate with each other when they fight against the Syrian government.[578][579][580] Quartz's managing edtior Bobby Ghosh wrote:
The two groups share a nihilistic worldview, a loathing for modernity, and for the West. They subscribe to the same perverted interpretations of Islam. Other common traits include a penchant for suicide attacks, and sophisticated exploitation of the internet and social media. Like ISIL, several Al Qaeda franchises are interested in taking and holding territory; AQAP has been much less successful at it. The main differences between Al Qaeda and ISIL are largely political—and personal. Over the past decade, Al Qaeda has twice embraced ISIL (and its previous manifestations) as brothers-in-arms.[581]
Supporters
Iraq and Syria nationals
According to Reuters, 90% of ISIL's fighters in Iraq are Iraqi, and 70% of its fighters in Syria are Syrian. The article, citing "jihadist ideologues" as the source, stated that the group has 40,000 fighters and 60,000 supporters across its two primary strongholds in Iraq and Syria.[15]
Foreign nationals
According to a report to the UN Security Council filed in late March 2015, 22,000 foreign fighters from 100 nations have traveled to Syria and Iraq, most to support ISIL. It warned that Syria and Iraq had become a "finishing school for extremists".[582] In mid-2014, ISIL's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had issued a call, "Rush O Muslims to your state ...".[583]
A UN report from May 2015 shows that 25,000 "foreign terrorist fighters" from 100 countries have joined "Islamist" groups, many of them working for ISIL or al-Qaeda.[584]
Groups with expressions of support
One source (Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC)) has identified 60 jihadist groups in 30 countries that have pledged allegiance or support to ISIL as of mid-November 2014. Many of these groups were previously affiliated with al-Qaeda, indicating a shift in global jihadist leadership toward ISIL.[585]
Memberships of the following groups have declared support for ISIL, either fully or in part.
Boko Haram[586]- Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters[587]
- Jemaah Islamiyah[588]
- Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia)[589][590]
- Jund al-Khilafah[591]
- Abu Sayyaf[39][592]
- Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem[593]
- Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid[594] - (pledged support to ISIL; the majority of the group split off after its leader pledged allegiance to ISIL)[595][596]
- Ansar Bait al-Maqdis[597]
- Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan[598][599]
- Jundallah (Pakistan)[38]
Caucasus Emirate (At least two Caucasus Emirate walis and several commanders had declared pledge of allegiance to ISIL)[600][601][602]
Military and resources
Military
Main article: Military of ISIL
ISIL fighters seen here in the Anbar province, Iraq.
Estimates of the size of ISIL's military vary widely from tens of thousands[603] up to 200,000.[14]
Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq
As of early 2015, journalist Mary Anne Weaver estimates that half of ISIL fighters are made up of foreigners.[604] A UN report estimated a total of 15,000 fighters from over 80 countries in ISIL's ranks as of November 2014.[605] US intelligence estimated an increase to around 20,000 foreign fighters in February 2015, including 3,400 from Western countries.[606]
| Country | Population |
|---|---|
 Tunisia |
3,000
|
 Saudi Arabia |
2,500
|
| Russia |
1,700
|
 Jordan |
1,500
|
 Morocco |
1,500
|
 France |
1,200
|
 Turkey |
1,000
|
 Lebanon |
900
|
 Germany |
650
|
 Libya |
600
|
 United Kingdom |
600
|
 Uzbekistan |
500
|
| Pakistan |
500
|
According to a statement of a former senior leader of IS, these fighters receive food, petrol and housing but do not receive payment in wages, unlike Iraqi or Syrian fighters.[629]
Weapons
See also: Military equipment of ISIL
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